Multi-system distributed processing of delivery and/or referral information for orders

ABSTRACT

Various systems and methods that may relate to referral and/or delivery services are described. Some embodiments may include syndicating service providers for orders to a plurality of providers, in store delivery options, mobile device ordering, price arbitrage and/or other elements. Various other embodiments are described.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/022,885 filed on Feb. 8, 2011 which claims the benefit of U.S.Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/434,502 filed Jan. 20, 2011,each of which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

FIG. 1 depicts a system according to at least one embodiment of thesystems disclosed herein;

FIG. 2 depicts a payment processing device according to at least oneembodiment of the systems disclosed herein;

FIG. 3 depicts another payment processing device according to at leastone embodiment of the systems disclosed herein;

FIG. 4 depicts a some menus interactions according to at least oneembodiment of the systems disclosed herein;

FIG. 5 depicts an example method according to at least one embodimentdisclosed herein;

FIG. 6 depicts another example method according to at least oneembodiment disclosed herein;

FIG. 7 depicts yet another example method according to at least oneembodiment disclosed herein;

FIG. 8 depicts some more menu interactions according to at least oneembodiment disclosed herein;

FIG. 9 depicts yet another example method according to at least oneembodiment disclosed herein;

FIG. 10 depicts yet another example method according to at least oneembodiment disclosed herein;

FIG. 11 depicts yet another example method according to at least oneembodiment disclosed herein;

FIG. 12 depicts an example of a delivery service provider and a point ofsale terminal;

FIG. 13 depicts yet another example method according to at least oneembodiment disclosed herein; and

FIG. 14 depicts yet another example method according to at least oneembodiment disclosed herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following sections I-X provide a guide to interpreting the presentapplication.

I. Terms

The term “product” means any machine, manufacture and/or composition ofmatter, unless expressly specified otherwise.

The term “process” means any process, algorithm, method or the like,unless expressly specified otherwise.

Each process (whether called a method, algorithm or otherwise)inherently includes one or more steps, and therefore all references to a“step” or “steps” of a process have an inherent antecedent basis in themere recitation of the term ‘process’ or a like term. Accordingly, anyreference in a claim to a ‘step’ or ‘steps’ of a process has sufficientantecedent basis.

The term “invention” and the like mean “the one or more inventionsdisclosed in this application”, unless expressly specified otherwise.

The terms “an embodiment”, “embodiment”, “embodiments”, “theembodiment”, “the embodiments”, “one or more embodiments”, “someembodiments”, “certain embodiments”, “one embodiment”, “anotherembodiment” and the like mean “one or more (but not all) embodiments ofthe disclosed invention(s)”, unless expressly specified otherwise.

The term “variation” of an invention means an embodiment of theinvention, unless expressly specified otherwise.

A reference to “another embodiment” in describing an embodiment does notimply that the referenced embodiment is mutually exclusive with anotherembodiment (e.g., an embodiment described before the referencedembodiment), unless expressly specified otherwise.

The terms “including”, “comprising” and variations thereof mean“including but not necessarily limited to”, unless expressly specifiedotherwise. Thus, for example, the sentence “the portfolio includes a redwidget and a blue widget” means the portfolio includes the red widgetand the blue widget, but may include something else.

The term “consisting of” and variations thereof means “including andlimited to”, unless expressly specified otherwise. Thus, for example,the sentence “the portfolio consists of a red widget and a blue widget”means the portfolio includes the red widget and the blue widget, butdoes not include anything else.

The term “compose” and variations thereof means “to make up theconstituent parts of, component of or member of”, unless expresslyspecified otherwise. Thus, for example, the sentence “the red widget andthe blue widget compose a portfolio” means the portfolio includes thered widget and the blue widget.

The term “exclusively compose” and variations thereof means “to make upexclusively the constituent parts of, to be the only components of or tobe the only members of”, unless expressly specified otherwise. Thus, forexample, the sentence “the red widget and the blue widget exclusivelycompose a portfolio” means the portfolio consists of the red widget andthe blue widget, and nothing else.

The terms “a”, “an” and “the” mean “one or more”, unless expresslyspecified otherwise.

The term “plurality” means “two or more”, unless expressly specifiedotherwise.

The term “herein” means “in the present application, including anythingwhich may be incorporated by reference”, unless expressly specifiedotherwise.

The phrase “at least one of”, when such phrase modifies a plurality ofthings (such as an enumerated list of things) means any combination ofone or more of those things, unless expressly specified otherwise. Forexample, the phrase “at least one of a widget, a car and a wheel” meanseither (i) a widget, (ii) a car, (iii) a wheel, (iv) a widget and a car,(v) a widget and a wheel, (vi) a car and a wheel, or (vii) a widget, acar and a wheel. The phrase “at least one of”, when such phrase modifiesa plurality of things does not mean “one of” each of the plurality ofthings.

Numerical terms such as “one”, “two”, etc. when used as cardinal numbersto indicate quantity of something (e.g., one widget, two widgets), meanthe quantity indicated by that numerical term, but do not mean at leastthe quantity indicated by that numerical term. For example, the phrase“one widget” does not mean “at least one widget”, and therefore thephrase “one widget” does not cover, e.g., two widgets.

The phrase “based on” does not mean “based only on”, unless expresslyspecified otherwise. In other words, the phrase “based on” describesboth “based only on” and “based at least on”. The phrase “based at leaston” is equivalent to the phrase “based at least in part on”.

The term “represent” and like terms are not exclusive, unless expresslyspecified otherwise. For example, the term “represents” does not mean“represents only”, unless expressly specified otherwise. In other words,the phrase “the data represents a credit card number” describes both“the data represents only a credit card number” and “the data representsa credit card number and the data also represents something else”.

The term “whereby” is used herein only to precede a clause or other setof words that express only the intended result, objective or consequenceof something that is previously and explicitly recited. Thus, when theterm “whereby” is used in a claim, the clause or other words that theterm “whereby” modifies do not establish specific further limitations ofthe claim or otherwise restricts the meaning or scope of the claim.

The term “e.g.” and like terms mean “for example”, and thus does notlimit the term or phrase it explains. For example, in the sentence “thecomputer sends data (e.g., instructions, a data structure) over theInternet”, the term “e.g.” explains that “instructions” are an exampleof “data” that the computer may send over the Internet, and alsoexplains that “a data structure” is an example of “data” that thecomputer may send over the Internet. However, both “instructions” and “adata structure” are merely examples of “data”, and other things besides“instructions” and “a data structure” can be “data”.

The term “respective” and like terms mean “taken individually”. Thus iftwo or more things have “respective” characteristics, then each suchthing has its own characteristic, and these characteristics can bedifferent from each other but need not be. For example, the phrase “eachof two machines has a respective function” means that the first suchmachine has a function and the second such machine has a function aswell. The function of the first machine may or may not be the same asthe function of the second machine.

The term “i.e.” and like terms mean “that is”, and thus limits the termor phrase it explains. For example, in the sentence “the computer sendsdata (i.e., instructions) over the Internet”, the term “i.e.” explainsthat “instructions” are the “data” that the computer sends over theInternet.

Any given numerical range shall include whole and fractions of numberswithin the range. For example, the range “1 to 10” shall be interpretedto specifically include whole numbers between 1 and 10 (e.g., 1, 2, 3,4, . . . 9) and non-whole numbers (e.g., 1.1, 1.2, . . . 1.9).

Where two or more terms or phrases are synonymous (e.g., because of anexplicit statement that the terms or phrases are synonymous), instancesof one such term/phrase does not mean instances of another suchterm/phrase must have a different meaning. For example, where astatement renders the meaning of “including” to be synonymous with“including but not limited to”, the mere usage of the phrase “includingbut not limited to” does not mean that the term “including” meanssomething other than “including but not limited to”.

II. Determining

The term “determining” and grammatical variants thereof (e.g., todetermine a price, determining a value, determine an object which meetsa certain criterion) is used in an extremely broad sense. The term“determining” encompasses a wide variety of actions and therefore“determining” can include calculating, computing, processing, deriving,investigating, looking up (e.g., looking up in a table, a database oranother data structure), ascertaining and the like. Also, “determining”can include receiving (e.g., receiving information), accessing (e.g.,accessing data in a memory) and the like. Also, “determining” caninclude resolving, selecting, choosing, establishing, and the like.

The term “determining” does not imply certainty or absolute precision,and therefore “determining” can include estimating, extrapolating,predicting, guessing and the like.

The term “determining” does not imply that mathematical processing mustbe performed, and does not imply that numerical methods must be used,and does not imply that an algorithm or process is used.

The term “determining” does not imply that any particular device must beused. For example, a computer need not necessarily perform thedetermining.

III. Forms of Sentences

Where a limitation of a first claim would cover one of a feature as wellas more than one of a feature (e.g., a limitation such as “at least onewidget” covers one widget as well as more than one widget), and where ina second claim that depends on the first claim, the second claim uses adefinite article “the” to refer to the limitation (e.g., “the widget”),this does not imply that the first claim covers only one of the feature,and this does not imply that the second claim covers only one of thefeature (e.g., “the widget” can cover both one widget and more than onewidget).

When an ordinal number (such as “first”, “second”, “third” and so on) isused as an adjective before a term, that ordinal number is used (unlessexpressly specified otherwise) merely to indicate a particular feature,such as to distinguish that particular feature from another feature thatis described by the same term or by a similar term. For example, a“first widget” may be so named merely to distinguish it from, e.g., a“second widget”. Thus, the mere usage of the ordinal numbers “first” and“second” before the term “widget” does not indicate any otherrelationship between the two widgets, and likewise does not indicate anyother characteristics of either or both widgets. For example, the mereusage of the ordinal numbers “first” and “second” before the term“widget” (1) does not indicate that either widget comes before or afterany other in order or location; (2) does not indicate that either widgetoccurs or acts before or after any other in time; and (3) does notindicate that either widget ranks above or below any other, as inimportance or quality. In addition, the mere usage of ordinal numbersdoes not define a numerical limit to the features identified with theordinal numbers. For example, the mere usage of the ordinal numbers“first” and “second” before the term “widget” does not indicate thatthere must be no more than two widgets.

When a single device, article or other product is described herein, morethan one device/article (whether or not they cooperate) mayalternatively be used in place of the single device/article that isdescribed. Accordingly, the functionality that is described as beingpossessed by a device may alternatively be possessed by more than onedevice/article (whether or not they cooperate).

Similarly, where more than one device, article or other product isdescribed herein (whether or not they cooperate), a singledevice/article may alternatively be used in place of the more than onedevice or article that is described. For example, a plurality ofcomputer-based devices may be substituted with a single computer-baseddevice. Accordingly, the various functionality that is described asbeing possessed by more than one device or article may alternatively bepossessed by a single device/article.

The functionality and/or the features of a single device that isdescribed may be alternatively embodied by one or more other deviceswhich are described but are not explicitly described as having suchfunctionality/features. Thus, other embodiments need not include thedescribed device itself, but rather can include the one or more otherdevices which would, in those other embodiments, have suchfunctionality/features.

IV. Disclosed Examples and Terminology are not Limiting

Neither the Title (set forth at the beginning of the first page of thepresent application) nor the Abstract (set forth at the end of thepresent application) is to be taken as limiting in any way as the scopeof the disclosed invention(s), is to be used in interpreting the meaningof any claim or is to be used in limiting the scope of any claim. AnAbstract has been included in this application merely because anAbstract is required under 37 C.F.R. §1.72(b).

The title of the present application and headings of sections providedin the present application are for convenience only, and are not to betaken as limiting the disclosure in any way.

Numerous embodiments are described in the present application, and arepresented for illustrative purposes only. The described embodiments arenot, and are not intended to be, limiting in any sense. The presentlydisclosed invention(s) are widely applicable to numerous embodiments, asis readily apparent from the disclosure. One of ordinary skill in theart will recognize that the disclosed invention(s) may be practiced withvarious modifications and alterations, such as structural, logical,software, and electrical modifications. Although particular features ofthe disclosed invention(s) may be described with reference to one ormore particular embodiments and/or drawings, it should be understoodthat such features are not limited to usage in the one or moreparticular embodiments or drawings with reference to which they aredescribed, unless expressly specified otherwise.

Though an embodiment may be disclosed as including several features,other embodiments of the invention may include fewer than all suchfeatures. Thus, for example, a claim may be directed to less than theentire set of features in a disclosed embodiment, and such claim wouldnot include features beyond those features that the claim expresslyrecites.

No embodiment of method steps or product elements described in thepresent application constitutes the invention claimed herein, or isessential to the invention claimed herein, or is coextensive with theinvention claimed herein, except where it is either expressly stated tobe so in this specification or expressly recited in a claim.

The preambles of the claims that follow recite purposes, benefits andpossible uses of the claimed invention only and do not limit the claimedinvention.

The present disclosure is not a literal description of all embodimentsof the invention(s). Also, the present disclosure is not a listing offeatures of the invention(s) which must be present in all embodiments.

All disclosed embodiment are not necessarily covered by the claims (evenincluding all pending, amended, issued and canceled claims). Inaddition, an embodiment may be (but need not necessarily be) covered byseveral claims. Accordingly, where a claim (regardless of whetherpending, amended, issued or canceled) is directed to a particularembodiment, such is not evidence that the scope of other claims do notalso cover that embodiment.

Devices that are described as in communication with each other need notbe in continuous communication with each other, unless expresslyspecified otherwise. On the contrary, such devices need only transmit toeach other as necessary or desirable, and may actually refrain fromexchanging data most of the time. For example, a machine incommunication with another machine via the Internet may not transmitdata to the other machine for long period of time (e.g. weeks at atime). In addition, devices that are in communication with each othermay communicate directly or indirectly through one or moreintermediaries.

A description of an embodiment with several components or features doesnot imply that all or even any of such components/features are required.On the contrary, a variety of optional components are described toillustrate the wide variety of possible embodiments of the presentinvention(s). Unless otherwise specified explicitly, nocomponent/feature is essential or required.

Although process steps, algorithms or the like may be described orclaimed in a particular sequential order, such processes may beconfigured to work in different orders. In other words, any sequence ororder of steps that may be explicitly described or claimed does notnecessarily indicate a requirement that the steps be performed in thatorder. The steps of processes described herein may be performed in anyorder possible. Further, some steps may be performed simultaneouslydespite being described or implied as occurring non-simultaneously(e.g., because one step is described after the other step). Moreover,the illustration of a process by its depiction in a drawing does notimply that the illustrated process is exclusive of other variations andmodifications thereto, does not imply that the illustrated process orany of its steps are necessary to the invention(s), and does not implythat the illustrated process is preferred.

Although a process may be described as including a plurality of steps,that does not imply that all or any of the steps are preferred,essential or required. Various other embodiments within the scope of thedescribed invention(s) include other processes that omit some or all ofthe described steps. Unless otherwise specified explicitly, no step isessential or required.

Although a process may be described singly or without reference to otherproducts or methods, in an embodiment the process may interact withother products or methods. For example, such interaction may includelinking one business model to another business model. Such interactionmay be provided to enhance the flexibility or desirability of theprocess.

Although a product may be described as including a plurality ofcomponents, aspects, qualities, characteristics and/or features, thatdoes not indicate that any or all of the plurality are preferred,essential or required. Various other embodiments within the scope of thedescribed invention(s) include other products that omit some or all ofthe described plurality.

An enumerated list of items (which may or may not be numbered) does notimply that any or all of the items are mutually exclusive, unlessexpressly specified otherwise. Likewise, an enumerated list of items(which may or may not be numbered) does not imply that any or all of theitems are comprehensive of any category, unless expressly specifiedotherwise. For example, the enumerated list “a computer, a laptop, aPDA” does not imply that any or all of the three items of that list aremutually exclusive and does not imply that any or all of the three itemsof that list are comprehensive of any category.

An enumerated list of items (which may or may not be numbered) does notimply that any or all of the items are equivalent to each other orreadily substituted for each other.

All embodiments are illustrative, and do not imply that the invention orany embodiments were made or performed, as the case may be.

V. Computing

It will be readily apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art that thevarious processes described herein may be implemented by, e.g.,appropriately programmed general purpose computers, special purposecomputers and computing devices. Typically a processor (e.g., one ormore microprocessors, one or more microcontrollers, one or more digitalsignal processors) will receive instructions (e.g., from a memory orlike device), and execute those instructions, thereby performing one ormore processes defined by those instructions. Instructions may beembodied in, e.g., one or more computer programs, one or more scripts.

A “processor” means one or more microprocessors, central processingunits (CPUs), computing devices, microcontrollers, digital signalprocessors, or like devices or any combination thereof, regardless ofthe architecture (e.g., chip-level multiprocessing/multi-core, RISC,CISC, Microprocessor without Interlocked Pipeline Stages, pipeliningconfiguration, simultaneous multithreading).

Thus a description of a process is likewise a description of anapparatus for performing the process. The apparatus that performs theprocess can include, e.g., a processor and those input devices andoutput devices that are appropriate to perform the process.

Further, programs that implement such methods (as well as other types ofdata) may be stored and transmitted using a variety of media (e.g.,computer readable media) in a number of manners. In some embodiments,hard-wired circuitry or custom hardware may be used in place of, or incombination with, some or all of the software instructions that canimplement the processes of various embodiments. Thus, variouscombinations of hardware and software may be used instead of softwareonly.

The term “computer-readable medium” refers to any medium, a plurality ofthe same, or a combination of different media, that participate inproviding data (e.g., instructions, data structures) which may be readby a computer, a processor or a like device. Such a medium may take manyforms, including but not limited to, non-volatile media, volatile media,and transmission media. Non-volatile media include, for example, opticalor magnetic disks and other persistent memory. Volatile media includedynamic random access memory (DRAM), which typically constitutes themain memory. Transmission media include coaxial cables, copper wire andfiber optics, including the wires that comprise a system bus coupled tothe processor. Transmission media may include or convey acoustic waves,light waves and electromagnetic emissions, such as those generatedduring radio frequency (RF) and infrared (IR) data communications.Common forms of computer-readable media include, for example, a floppydisk, a flexible disk, hard disk, magnetic tape, any other magneticmedium, a CD-ROM, DVD, any other optical medium, punch cards, papertape, any other physical medium with patterns of holes, a RAM, a PROM,an EPROM, a FLASH-EEPROM, any other memory chip or cartridge, a carrierwave as described hereinafter, or any other medium from which a computercan read.

Various forms of computer readable media may be involved in carryingdata (e.g. sequences of instructions) to a processor. For example, datamay be (i) delivered from RAM to a processor; (ii) carried over awireless transmission medium; (iii) formatted and/or transmittedaccording to numerous formats, standards or protocols, such as Ethernet(or IEEE 802.3), SAP, ATP, Bluetooth□, and TCP/IP, TDMA, CDMA, and 3G;and/or (iv) encrypted to ensure privacy or prevent fraud in any of avariety of ways well known in the art.

Thus a description of a process is likewise a description of acomputer-readable medium storing a program for performing the process.The computer-readable medium can store (in any appropriate format) thoseprogram elements which are appropriate to perform the method.

Just as the description of various steps in a process does not indicatethat all the described steps are required, embodiments of an apparatusinclude a computer/computing device operable to perform some (but notnecessarily all) of the described process.

Likewise, just as the description of various steps in a process does notindicate that all the described steps are required, embodiments of acomputer-readable medium storing a program or data structure include acomputer-readable medium storing a program that, when executed, cancause a processor to perform some (but not necessarily all) of thedescribed process.

Where databases are described, it will be understood by one of ordinaryskill in the art that (i) alternative database structures to thosedescribed may be readily employed, and (ii) other memory structuresbesides databases may be readily employed. Any illustrations ordescriptions of any sample databases presented herein are illustrativearrangements for stored representations of information. Any number ofother arrangements may be employed besides those suggested by, e.g.,tables illustrated in drawings or elsewhere. Similarly, any illustratedentries of the databases represent exemplary information only; one ofordinary skill in the art will understand that the number and content ofthe entries can be different from those described herein. Further,despite any depiction of the databases as tables, other formats(including relational databases, object-based models and/or distributeddatabases) could be used to store and manipulate the data typesdescribed herein. Likewise, object methods or behaviors of a databasecan be used to implement various processes, such as the describedherein. In addition, the databases may, in a known manner, be storedlocally or remotely from a device which accesses data in such adatabase.

Various embodiments can be configured to work in a network environmentincluding a computer that is in communication (e.g., via acommunications network) with one or more devices. The computer maycommunicate with the devices directly or indirectly, via any wired orwireless medium (e.g. the Internet, LAN, WAN or Ethernet, Token Ring, atelephone line, a cable line, a radio channel, an optical communicationsline, commercial on-line service providers, bulletin board systems, asatellite communications link, a combination of any of the above). Eachof the devices may themselves comprise computers or other computingdevices, such as those based on the Intel® Pentium® or Centrino™processor, that are adapted to communicate with the computer. Any numberand type of devices may be in communication with the computer.

In an embodiment, a server computer or centralized authority may not benecessary or desirable. For example, the present invention may, in anembodiment, be practiced on one or more devices without a centralauthority. In such an embodiment, any functions described herein asperformed by the server computer or data described as stored on theserver computer may instead be performed by or stored on one or moresuch devices.

Where a process is described, in an embodiment the process may operatewithout any user intervention. In another embodiment, the processincludes some human intervention (e.g., a step is performed by or withthe assistance of a human).

VI. Continuing Applications

The present disclosure provides, to one of ordinary skill in the art, anenabling description of several embodiments and/or inventions. Some ofthese embodiments and/or inventions may not be claimed in the presentapplication, but may nevertheless be claimed in one or more continuingapplications that claim the benefit of priority of the presentapplication.

Applicants intend to file additional applications to pursue patents forsubject matter that has been disclosed and enabled but not claimed inthe present application.

VII. 35 U.S.C. §112, Paragraph 6

In a claim, a limitation of the claim which includes the phrase “meansfor” or the phrase “step for” means that 35 U.S.C. §112, paragraph 6,applies to that limitation.

In a claim, a limitation of the claim which does not include the phrase“means for” or the phrase “step for” means that 35 U.S.C. §112,paragraph 6 does not apply to that limitation, regardless of whetherthat limitation recites a function without recitation of structure,material or acts for performing that function. For example, in a claim,the mere use of the phrase “step of” or the phrase “steps of” inreferring to one or more steps of the claim or of another claim does notmean that 35 U.S.C. §112, paragraph 6, applies to that step(s).

With respect to a means or a step for performing a specified function inaccordance with 35 U.S.C. §112, paragraph 6, the correspondingstructure, material or acts described in the specification, andequivalents thereof, may perform additional functions as well as thespecified function.

Computers, processors, computing devices and like products arestructures that can perform a wide variety of functions. Such productscan be operable to perform a specified function by executing one or moreprograms, such as a program stored in a memory device of that product orin a memory device which that product accesses. Unless expresslyspecified otherwise, such a program need not be based on any particularalgorithm, such as any particular algorithm that might be disclosed inthe present application. It is well known to one of ordinary skill inthe art that a specified function may be implemented via differentalgorithms, and any of a number of different algorithms would be a meredesign choice for carrying out the specified function.

Therefore, with respect to a means or a step for performing a specifiedfunction in accordance with 35 U.S.C. §112, paragraph 6, structurecorresponding to a specified function includes any product programmed toperform the specified function. Such structure includes programmedproducts which perform the function, regardless of whether such productis programmed with (i) a disclosed algorithm for performing thefunction, (ii) an algorithm that is similar to a disclosed algorithm, or(iii) a different algorithm for performing the function.

Where there is recited a means for performing a function that is amethod, one structure for performing this method includes a computingdevice (e.g., a general purpose computer) that is programmed and/orconfigured with appropriate hardware to perform that function.

Also included is a computing device (e.g., a general purpose computer)that is programmed and/or configured with appropriate hardware toperform that function via other algorithms as would be understood by oneof ordinary skill in the art.

VIII. Disclaimer

Numerous references to a particular embodiment do not indicate adisclaimer or disavowal of additional, different embodiments, andsimilarly references to the description of embodiments which all includea particular feature do not indicate a disclaimer or disavowal ofembodiments which do not include that particular feature. A cleardisclaimer or disavowal in the present application shall be prefaced bythe phrase “does not include” or by the phrase “cannot perform”.

IX. Incorporation By Reference

Any patent, patent application or other document referred to herein isincorporated by reference into this patent application as part of thepresent disclosure, but only for purposes of written description andenablement in accordance with 35 U.S.C. §112, paragraph 1, and should inno way be used to limit, define, or otherwise construe any term of thepresent application, unless without such incorporation by reference, noordinary meaning would have been ascertainable by a person of ordinaryskill in the art. Such person of ordinary skill in the art need not havebeen in any way limited by any embodiments provided in the reference

Any incorporation by reference does not, in and of itself, imply anyendorsement of, ratification of or acquiescence in any statements,opinions, arguments or characterizations contained in any incorporatedpatent, patent application or other document, unless explicitlyspecified otherwise in this patent application.

X. Prosecution History

In interpreting the present application (which includes the claims), oneof ordinary skill in the art shall refer to the prosecution history ofthe present application, but not to the prosecution history of any otherpatent or patent application, regardless of whether there are otherpatent applications that are considered related to the presentapplication, and regardless of whether there are other patentapplications that share a claim of priority with the presentapplication.

XI. Example Embodiments

U.S. patent publication 2008/0161944 entitle Method and Apparatus forGroup Filtered Reports, U.S. patent publication 2008/0195538 entitledPayment During Trial Period of Referral Service, U.S. patent publication2009/0083135 entitled Products and Processes for Revenue Sharing, andU.S. patent publication 2009/0083324 entitled Method and Apparatus forMenu Generation and all hereby incorporated herein by reference.

It is recognized that communication (e.g., one way and/or two way) witha merchant may be desirable in some embodiments. For example, orderinformation may be transmitted to a merchant, confirmation informationmay be transmitted from a merchant, time estimate information may betransmitted from a merchant, time request information may be transmittedto a merchant, payment information may be transmitted to a merchant,special request information may be transmitted to the merchant, creditauthorization may be transmitted to the merchant, reservationinformation may be transmitted to/from a merchant, delivery information,and so on. Such information may be transmitted to and/or from acommunication device associated with the merchant. A merchant forexample, may include a restaurant.

It is recognized that in some embodiments a merchant may have spaceconstraints in an area in which a communication device is desired. Forexample, a communication device may be desired in a kitchen area inwhich space is at a premium, a communication device may be desired at acounter area near where a host or hostess works, a communication devicemay be desired near a cash register to process payment information, andso on. In some embodiments, a merchant may already have one or moredevices in such a desired area that may have some communicationfunctionality but not all desired functionality. In some embodiments,such a communication device may include a payment transaction deviceconfigured to authorize payments such as on a credit and or debit card.

In some embodiments, a payment transaction device may be configured toprovide one way and/or two way communication regarding non-paymentrelated information. Such information may be communicated to a merchant,to a customer, to a delivery agent, to a third party, to a referralservice, and so on. Because a merchant may already have a paymenttransaction device, the additional functionality regarding thisinformation may be added to the merchant without adding an additionaltype of device that takes up additional space.

Some embodiments may include methods and apparatus related to a referralservice and/or a delivery service. Some embodiments of such a servicemay receive an indication of an order for a merchant from a user of theservice and may forward the indication of the order to the merchant.Some embodiments may facilitate delivery of items fulfilling the orderfrom the merchant to the user.

It should be recognized that the term facilitate and derivations thereofare used herein in an extremely broad sense. Such terms may be used toinclude any action that may directly, and/or indirectly bring aboutand/or help to bring about a thing. For example facilitatingtransmission may include allowing a transmission, transmitting,transmitting directly, transmitting indirectly, any action that may aidin transmission, and so on.

In some embodiments, orders for one or more merchants may be collectedby an order collector such as a website operated at www.delivery.com.Such a website may provide options for a user to select one or moreitems from one or more merchants to order and/or have delivered. Such awebsite may be operated at one or more web servers and or other servers.Such a web site may be reached over the Internet using a web browser,over another network, and so on. Other methods of submitting orders maybe used, such as telephone, fax, email, proprietary software, and so on.

In some embodiments, payment for one or more orders may be made throughan order collector, to a merchant, to a delivery agent, and so on.Payments may originate from various sources, such as banks, individuals,payment processing services and/or money transferors. Payments may bedistributed among merchants, referral service providers, deliveryagents, delivery service providers, payment processing services, and anyother desired entity.

In some embodiments, an indication of a payment for an order may bereceived. An indication of a payment may include, for example, one ormore of an indication that a payment has been made, an indication that apayment has been authorized, and/or an indication of a promise to make apayment in the future. In some implementations, an indication of apayment may include an indication that a payment has been made to adesired money account.

In some implementations, the indication may be received from an entitymaking or processing a payment to the desired money account (e.g., abank, a credit card company, a money transferor, a payment processingservice). In some implementations, the indication may be received froman entity receiving the money (e.g., a bank, a credit card company, amoney transferor, a payment processing service). In someimplementations, the indication may be received after the money isauthorized to be transferred into the desired account but before themoney is transferred/received. In some implementations, the indicationmay be received after the money is transferred into/received at thedesired account.

Some embodiments may include collection of a payment. For example, insome embodiments, a delivery agent may collect a promised payment upondelivery and/or pickup, a credit card may be charged an authorizedamount, and so on. In some embodiments, a payment agreed upon initiallymay be changed later, such as to add a tip, adjust for undelivereditems, refund for a coupon, and so on. Some embodiments may furtherinclude distributing the collected payment among one or more entities,such as the delivery agent, a merchant, a referral and/or deliveryservice, a payment processing service, and so on.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example diagram of a service implemented in someembodiments. System 101 may include a computer system as describedabove. System 101 may be configured to provide a referral and/ordelivery service. System 101 may include a web server configured toprovide a user interface to one or more users to place orders, to one ormore merchants to establish menus and merchant information, to one ormore administrators, and so on. System 101 may include any number ofservers configured to provide any desired processing regarding orderinformation, payment information, delivery information, reviewinformation, and so on. System 101 may include a communication interfaceconfigured to communicate information to one or more remotedestinations, such as to a merchant, to a payment processing service, toa delivery agent, and so on. Such a communication interface may includea network interface, a SIM card for cellular access, a telephone line,and so on.

Some embodiments may include a merchant 103. In some embodiments, aplurality of merchants may be provided referral and/or delivery serviceby system 101. Merchant 103 may register with the referral and/ordelivery service, such as providing menu information, hours ofoperation, delivery area information, and so on to the service (e.g.,through a website and/or other interface, over the phone, through mail,etc.). Merchant 103 may include a restaurant in some implementations.Such information may include one or more food items offered by a menu ofthe restaurant.

Some embodiments may include a user 105. User 105 may access a system101, such as a website to place an order for one or more merchants 103that use the services offered by system 101. The system 101 may provideinformation about the items offered by the merchants such as food itemsoffered through a menu of a restaurant. A user may place an order forone or more food items offered by one or more restaurants and/or otheritems offered by other merchants. Such an order may include a purchaseof an item and/or service, a delivery order, a pickup order, and so on.Such an order may include any number of details regarding the order suchas allergy information, delivery time, pickup time, directions, deliveryagent, and so on. A user may submit payment information for such anorder through such a service and/or may later provide paymentinformation to a merchant, to a delivery agent, and so on. Such aninteraction may take place through software, through a web browser, on aphone, over fax, via email, and so on.

Some embodiments may include a delivery agent 107. Such a delivery agentmay be part of the merchant and/or may be a third party. Such a deliveryagent may act to deliver items from the merchant to the user asindicated by a dashed line in FIG. 1. In one implementation, deliveryagent 107 may include a person who travels from merchant 103 to user105. In some implementations, delivery agent 107 may deliver to anotherlocation rather than to the user if the user 105 desires such delivery(e.g., if the order indicates such delivery). In some implementations,delivery agent 107 may include a person traveling by an automobile,bicycle, or any other means. Some embodiments may include acommunication interface with the delivery agent. Such an interface mayallow the delivery agent to communicate with the merchant, the user, thesystem, the payment processing center, and so on. Such a communicationinterface may include a telephone line (e.g., a cell phone), a faxmachine, a computer and/or another means of electronic communication.For example, in some implementations a cellular telephone maycommunicate information regarding the delivery to the delivery agent211, e.g., through a telephone call or text message. In otherimplementations, an electronic message such as an SMS, MMS, or emailmessage may communicate the information, for example to a mobile devicecarried by delivery agent 107 or to a central dispatcher that thenrelays the information to delivery agent 107. Such information may besent to the delivery agent by another source, such as system 101,merchant 103, user 105, a payment processing service, and so on asdesired in an implementation, for example, based on who desired toarrange such a delivery if such a delivery is even desired at all.

Some embodiments may include a payment processing service 109. In someembodiments, payment processing service may be configured to receiveinformation about a credit and/or debit card transaction and facilitatea charge being placed with the credit and/or debit card. The paymentprocessing service may transmit authorization information identifyingthat the payment has been processed. Payment processing service mayinclude a service such as VeriFone. Such a service being used to providepayment processing to a merchant is well known. For example, a merchantmay swipe a credit card into a payment processing device, which maytransmit information about the credit card to the payment processingservice. The payment processing service may verify the credit card andauthorize a charge. In response the payment processing service may sendauthorization information to the payment processing device which maythen print a receipt that a customer signs. It should be recognized thatthis is one non-limiting example of a use of a payment processingservice to process payments. Further examples of a payment processingservice, payment processing device, and/or operation not involvingprocessing payments are described elsewhere herein.

Some embodiments may include one or more communication networks 111.Such networks may include one or more combination of networks asdesired. For example, such networks may include a telephone line, cablelines, cellular links, Wi-Fi, DSL lines, face-to-face communication, theInternet and/or one or more local area networks. Each communication linkmay be separate or may be shared. For example, a network used by a userto access the system may include a local network and/or the Internet. Anetwork used to communicate between a payment processing service and amerchant may include a dedicated link, a telephone line, and/or theInternet. A network used to communicate between a payment processingservice and the system may include a dedicated link, a telephone line,and/or the Internet. Various information desired to perform any desiredmethod or transaction may be communicated in any desired format throughsuch networks.

Some embodiments may include a payment processing device 113 Such adevice may be disposed at a merchant (e.g., at a host stand, at acashier, at a kitchen, etc.). An example of such a device interactingwith a payment processing service to process a credit card payment isdescribed above. FIGS. 2 and 3 show non-limiting example paymentprocessing devices that may be used in some embodiments. Such devicesmay be obtained from VeriFone, Inc. of Canton Mass., Hypercom ofScottsdale Ariz., and Ingenico of Alpharetta Ga. Some non-limitingexamples, include the ZON Jr, Tranz models, Omni models, Vx Solutionsmodels, NURIT models, Hypercom T models, and so on.

FIG. 2 illustrates one example payment processing device. Such a devicemay include a credit card and/or debit card processing device. Such adevice may allow a merchant to authorize and/or place a charge on acredit card and/or debit card for a product and/or service. Such adevice may communicate with a payment processing service to authorizeand/or place such a charge, as described above and known in the art. Apayment processing device may include a communication interface, aprinter, a keypad, a display, a card reader, a processor, a memory, aperipheral device, and so on.

As indicated at 201, a payment processing device may include acommunication interface such as a Wi-Fi connection, a SIM card, anEthernet port, a telephone plug, a modem, and so on. Such an interfacemay provide a continuous connection with a payment processing service.For example, a dedicated data line may connect the device to acommunication network such as the Internet. Such an interface mayprovide an on demand connection with a payment processing service (e.g.,demand by the merchant and/or the payment processing service). Forexample, a telephone call may be made to provide a connection to and/orfrom the device. In some embodiments, communication using the interfacemay be encrypted to protect customer privacy.

As indicated at 203, a payment processing device may include a printer.Such a printer may be used, for example, to output a receipt for acustomer and/or for a signature. In some embodiments, such a printer maybe used to output order information and/or other non-paymentinformation.

As indicated at 205, a payment processing device may include a display.Such a display may be used to display information about a payment. Sucha display may be used to display a menu through which a merchant maynavigate (e.g., to enter payment details, to enter non-payment details,to view information, and so son). Such a display may be used to outputnon-payment information. Such a display may output informationdetermined by a processor and/or memory of the device and/or informationreceived from an outside source (e.g., payment processing service).

As indicated at 207, a payment processing device may include a keypad.Such a keypad may be used to navigate a menu. Such a keypad may be usedto input information into the device (e.g., payment information,non-payment information, confirmation information, menu navigationcommands, and so on). Such a keypad may be used to enter PINs, securitycodes, and so on.

As indicated at 209, a payment processing device may include a cardreader. Such a card reader may be used to read a magnetic strip from acredit and/or debit card. Some embodiments may include an RFID or otherwireless card reader that may wirelessly read card information from acredit and/or debit card. Such card readers are known in the art. Insome embodiments, a keypad may be used to enter card information.

A payment processing device may include any desired computing devicecomponents. For example, a payment processing device may include aprocessor 211 and/or memory 213 that may execute and/or store a programand/or data. For example such a program may perform a method regardingpayment transaction that allows a merchant to use the device toauthorize and/or charge a payment to a credit card and/or debit card.Such a program may perform a method regarding non-payment transactionssuch as a method described elsewhere herein.

Some embodiments may include connections to peripheral devices, such asexternal printers, external display screens, cash registers, and so on.Such devices may take the place of and/or work with included devices.For example, in some embodiments, a cash register may input paymenttotals to the payment processing device, a printer may be used toprinter reports or information on larger paper, and so on.

FIG. 3 illustrates another example payment processing device. In thisexample, such a payment processing device includes a wireless handheldmodel that may be used in some embodiments. Such a device may, in someembodiments, communicate with a base station. Such a device may performsimilar functionality of the example shown in FIG. 2.

It should be recognized that FIGS. 2 and 3 are given as examples onlyand that other embodiments may include any form of payment processingdevice. Such a device may include any form of input and/or output suchas hearing and/or vision impaired methods of input and/or output and soon. Some embodiments may include audio input and/or output, haptic inputand/or output, and so on.

In some embodiments, operation of a payment processing device to performa payment may include receiving information about a sale, such as from akeypad entry, from an external device such as a cash register. Then,information about a payment method may be received. Such information maybe received by entry of information using a keypad and/or display, swipeand/or tap of a card and so on. Payment method information may betransmitted to a payment processing service, and an authorization may bereceived from the payment processing service indicating that the paymenthas been authorized and/or charged to a credit and/or debit card. Anoutput of such authorization may be provided through the device or aperipheral, such as a display and/or a receipt.

Various actions may be performed through using a payment processingdevice by accessing one or more menus. Some example menu prompts andinteractions are shown in FIG. 4 that may allow a merchant to enterpayment information, tip information, print receipts, and so on.Operation through such a menu may result in one and/or two waycommunication with a payment processing service and/or output through adisplay, printer and/or other device. Additional menus may be used toextend functionality to non-payment options as explained elsewhereherein.

In some embodiments, a payment processing device and/or paymentprocessing service may be configured to provide non-payment relatedservices such as service related to the system 101 of FIG. 1. Forexample, such a device and/or service may allow communication regardingorders, delivery, confirmation, and so on that may be received by system101. Such communication may be one way and/or two way. Suchcommunication may be originated by system 101 through a paymentprocessing service.

In operation, a system such as that shown in FIG. 1 and/or any otherentity may perform one or more processes to provide non-paymentfunctionality using a payment processing device of a merchant. In someembodiments, to enable such functionality, as described elsewhereherein, one or more programs may be configured to accept input, respondto input, receive and/or transmit data, and/or perform any desiredfunction. Such a program may, for example, include a program on amemory, such as a memory of a server, of a computer system of a paymentprocessing service, of a payment processing device, of a user'scomputing device, and/or any other device.

As discussed elsewhere herein, some embodiments may include differentformatting of information and payments for various entities. In someembodiments, a single system 101 may interact with multiple paymentprocessing systems that may use different formatting and/or paymentschemes. An arrangement may be made between such entities to provide forproper formatting, work arrangements, payment, and so on.

FIG. 5 illustrates one non-limiting example method that may be used insome embodiments. Such a process may be performed, for example by system101, payment processing service 103, a user, and/or a payment processingdevice of a merchant in any combination desired. Such a process may beperformed by one or more servers and/or processors. In some embodiments,such a process may be performed at least in part by a system such assystem 101.

Some embodiments may include receiving and/or transmitting informationabout one or more items and/or services that may be ordered from one ormore merchants. Such information may be received from a merchant and/oranother source. Such information may be received by a provider of areferral and/or delivery service.

As indicated at block 501, some embodiments may include transmittinginformation about items and/or services that may be ordered from one ormore merchants to one or more users of a referral and/or deliveryservice. Such transmitting may be performed, in some embodiments bysystem 101. Such information may be transmitted via the Internet to bedisplayed as a webpage in a web browser operated by a compute ringdevice of the user. Such information may include be a menu of food itemsoffered by one or more restaurants. In some embodiments, a userinterface may include for example, a website, mobile device interfaceand so on. The user interface may allow the user to select a particularmerchant or merchants and products and/or services from the particularmerchant or merchants. In such implementations, for example, the userinterface may display a representation of available merchants (e.g., alist of merchants that may be in an identified geographical locationassociated with the user and/or merchants that are open at the time) towhich the user may submit orders. In some embodiments, a listing orother representation of items and/or services may be displayed in a userinterface for the user to select from.

In some embodiments, the user may select one or more items and/orservices and in response, an indication of an order be transmitted fromthe user. In some implementations, the selected products and/or servicemay be stored in a “shopping cart” of a website and the order may besubmitted for processing after the user has finished selecting productsand/or services, for example, after the user has proceeded to a checkoutinterface through which the user may authorize payment for the productsand/or services, as is known in the art.

As indicated at block 503, some embodiments may include receiving anorder for one or more items and/or services from one or more users. Suchreceiving may be performed, in some embodiments by service 101. Theorder may include any information desired to identify desired itemsand/or product, any desired merchant, and/or any desired characteristicsabout an order (e.g., time, allergies, delivery location, specialrequest, etc.). In some implementations, the received indication of theorder may include one or more electronic messages. In some embodiments,an indication of an order may include an order for products and/orservices from multiple merchants.

In some embodiments, in which such an order includes items and/orservices from multiple merchants, a different method of forwarding ontoeach merchant may be used. The following description describes anexample in which an order is for a single merchant, but it should berecognized that similar methods may be used in other embodiments.

In some embodiments, payment information may be received with and/orseparate from order information. Such payment information may be used tomake a payment for an order. In other embodiments, payments may bearranged with a merchant and/or a delivery agent.

As indicated at block 505, some embodiments may include transmitting theorder to a payment processing service. Such transmitting may beperformed by system 101. Such transmitting may be performed in responseto the receiving of block 503. In some embodiments, a determination maybe made as to which of a number of payment processing services amerchant uses and transmission may be made o that payment processingservice. This may be performed based on a lookup table that includesinformation about the merchant (e.g., information obtained at the timeof sign up). Such transmission may include transmitted over acommunication network in any desired format.

As indicated at block 507, some embodiments may include formatting anindication of the order for transmission to a payment processing device.Such formatting may be done at a system 101 and/or at a paymentprocessing service 109 before and/or after block 505. Such formattingmay be performed in response to the receiving of block 503, a receivingof the transmission of block 505, and so on. Such formatting may includeplacing order information into a form that may be understood by thepayment processing device. This may include, for example, a proprietaryformat, an XML format, any desired packet format, and so on. Such aformat may be a same or different format than the format in which theorder is received forma user.

As indicated at block 509, some embodiments may include establishing aconnection to a payment processing device of the merchant. Suchestablishing may be done at a system 101 and/or at a payment processingservice 109 before and/or after any other actions. Such establishing maybe done in response to receiving a transmission of block 505, inresponse to a receiving of block 503, and so on. A connection to thepayment processing device may be established by a payment processingservice in a similar manner for payment processing activities.Establishing such a connection may include establishing a dedicatedconnection with the payment processing device that may have beenestablished prior to the user placing an order, for example.Establishing such a connection may include establishing a transactionspecific connection that may be established in response to the userplacing the order. Establishing a connection may include, for example,transmitting connection information to an IP address, making a telephonecall to a line connected to the payment processing device, and so on.

As indicated at block 511, some embodiments may include transmitting anorder to a payment processing device of the merchant. Such transmittingmay occur at a system 101 and/or at a payment processing service 109.Such transmitting may take place using the established connection fromblock 509 and using a format from block 507. Such transmitting may beperformed in response to a receiving of block 503, a receiving of atransmission of block 505, an establishing of block 509, and so on. Insome embodiments, the transmitted order information may include detailsabout an order. The detail may include abbreviations that may beestablished by the merchant. The details may include prices, times,quantity, item names, a pickup time, a delivery time, a deliveryaddress, a delivery agent, and so on. In some embodiments, transmittingmay include transmitting confirmation information. Such confirmationinformation may include a confirmation code, a confirmation image, aconfirmation telephone number and so on. Such information may be used sothat a merchant may confirm receipt and acceptance of an order. Suchconfirmation information may include, for example, a CRC number or othererror detecting codes.

In some embodiments, transmitting and/or formatting may includearranging so that output is properly output. For example, a system maydetermine an end of a description of one item in an order so that thedescription is less than a maximum number of characters for an outputmethod (e.g., one receipt page, one page of a display). In someembodiments, this may be performed by a payment processing device suchas sing a memory or program and/or a menu system.

As indicated at block 513, some embodiments may include receiving aconfirmation of the order from the merchant. Such receiving may occur ata system 101 and/or at a payment processing service 109. In someembodiments, such confirmation may be received from a payment processingdevice of the merchant. For example, a merchant may enter a confirmationcode from the order transmission into the device and that code may betransmitted from the device (e.g., using the established connectionand/or another connection) and received.

As another example, a merchant may enter a confirm button associatedwith an order and/or one or more items in the order to confirm the orderand/or the items. Such confirmation may be transmitted from the device(e.g., using the established connection and/or another connection) andreceived.

In some embodiments, in which confirmation is received by a paymentprocessing service that is separate from a referral and/or deliveryservice system, such a confirmation may be to the referral and/ordelivery service system and received thereby. In some embodiments, inwhich such a confirmation is received by a system 101 and/or in whichsystem 101 and a payment processing service are a same entity, suchforwarding may not be performed.

In some embodiments, confirmation may take any number of forms that mayor may not involve a payment processing device. For example, in someembodiments, a confirmation may include calling a number and/orreceiving a call and inputting a code or other information about theorder (e.g., to an automated system), sending an email, enteringinformation on a website, faxing, and so on.

Some embodiments may include retrying to send information about an orderif confirmation is not received within a desired time period. Such atime period may include any amount of time such as 1 minute 5 minutes 10minutes 20 minutes, and so on. Such retrying may be performed by apayment processing service and/or a system 101. Retrying may beperformed any number of times desired. Retrying may include othermethods of sending order information other merchant. After somethreshold number of failed retries the user may be notified that theorder cannot be completed and may be given an opportunity to place a neworder with a different merchant. For example, a system may determineother merchants that may service the user with similar items and/orservice and may provide an indication of those opportunities to the user(e.g., through a user interface, through a phone call, through an email,and so on). such information may be presented to a customer servicerepresentative that may then call the user with the information. Anyother method of facilitating re confirmation and/or order change may beperformed in an embodiment.

Some embodiments may include facilitating delivery. Such facilitationmay be performed by a merchant and or system 101. Such facilitation maybe performed in response to a receipt of a confirmation. Suchfacilitation may include sending information to one or more deliveryagents. In some embodiments, information about a delivery may betransmitted along with order information to a merchant. Such informationmay include a time of delivery and/or pick up for an order, anauthorized delivery agent, contact information for the delivery agent,and so on. Such information may be sent along with order information, ata different time from order information, and so on. For example, suchinformation may be sent after a delivery agent confirms that they willbe able to make the delivery which may be after the order information issent to the merchant.

In some embodiments, a payment may be exchanged among merchant, user,delivery agent, referral and/or delivery service, payment processingservice, and/or any other desired entity. In some implementations, forexample, the user may provide a payment to delivery agent. Deliveryagent may provide the payment to the merchant who may later provide thepayment to any other desired entity. The delivery agent may take a orreceive a payment at that time or a later time.

It should be recognized that while FIG. 5 illustrate one non-limitingexample method, other embodiments may include any method desired whichmay include same or different actions in any desired order and/ornumber. It should be recognized that while the above description isgiven in terms of order information, that similar methods may be used toprovide any desired non-payment information, such as reservationinformation, shipping of goods (e.g., wines, ingredients, and so on)information, and/or any other desired non-payment information. It shouldbe recognized that while non-payment information may be communicated insome embodiments, payment information may be communicated in addition tosuch non-payment information to and/or form the merchant at any desiredstep in any method (e.g., a payment method and/or authorization may betransmitted to the merchant along with the order and/or in response to aconfirmation by the merchant). It should be recognized that action ofsuch a process may be performed by any entity as desired in variousembodiments.

Some embodiments may include one or more processes that may be performedby a system 101, a payment processing service 109, a user, and/or amerchant in any combination. FIG. 6 illustrates a non-limiting exampleof such a process. Such a process may be performed by one or moreservers and/or processors. In some embodiments, such a process may beperformed at least in part by a payment processing service.

As indicated at block 601, some embodiments may include receiving anorder. Such an order may be received in any format. Some embodiments mayinclude formatting the received information to another format such asthat used by a payment processing device. In some embodiments, the ordermay be received in such a format. The order may be received from system101 by a payment processing service. The order may be received by system101 from a user. A recipient of the order may determine how tocommunicate the order to a merchant.

As indicated at block 603, some embodiments may include establishing aconnection to a merchant. Such establishing may be performed in responseto receiving of block 601. Such establishing may be performed by system101 and/or a payment processing service. Such establishing is describedelsewhere herein.

As indicated at block 605, some embodiments may include transmitting theorder to a payment processing device of the merchant. Such transmittingmay be performed in response to the establishing of block 603, inresponse to the receiving of block 601, and so on. Such transmitting maybe done by system 101 and/or a payment processing service such as overthe established connection in the desired format. Such transmitting isdescribed elsewhere herein.

As indicated at block 607, some embodiments may include responding toinput from a merchant made through the payment processing device. Forexample, input from the merchant may be received, and output to themerchant may be made in response to the input. Input may include, forexample, a button being pressed, such as a more information and/or pageup or down button. In some embodiments, such responses may be performedby the payment processing device. For example, an entire order may besent to the payment processing device and a portion may be shown perscreen. When a next page button is pressed, the payment processingdevice may access a memory to display the next portion of the order. Insome embodiments, such responses may be performed by system 101 and/or apayment processing service. For example, only portions of an order maybe transmitted at a time that correspond to what is shown to a merchanton a display and when a merchant presses a next page button moreinformation may be transmitted.

As indicated at block 609, some embodiments may include receivingconfirmation of the order from the merchant. In some embodiments, suchreceiving may be performed by system 101 and/or a payment processingservice. Such receiving is described elsewhere herein.

Some embodiments may include retrying transmission if a confirmation isnot received. Such retrying may be on an order by order basis and/or anitem by item basis. Retrying is described elsewhere herein.

As indicated at block 611, some embodiments may include transmitting theconfirmation to one or more destination. Such transmitting may beperformed din response to the receiving of block 609. Such transmittingmay be performed by system 101 and/or a payment processing service. Forexample, such transmitting may include transmitting to system 101 from apayment processing system, transmitting to a user from system 101, andso on. Such transmitting is described elsewhere herein.

It should be recognized that while FIG. 6 illustrate one non-limitingexample method, other embodiments may include any method desired whichmay include same or different actions in any desired order and/ornumber. It should be recognized that while the above description isgiven in terms of order information, that similar methods may be used toprovide any desired non-payment information, such as reservationinformation, shipping of goods (e.g., wines, ingredients, and so on)information, and/or any other desired non-payment information. It shouldbe recognized that while non-payment information may be communicated insome embodiments, payment information may be communicated in addition tosuch non-payment information to and/or form the merchant at any desiredstep in any method (e.g., a payment method and/or authorization may betransmitted to the merchant along with the order and/or in response to aconfirmation by the merchant). Some embodiments of FIG. 6 may beperformed by a payment processing service. Some embodiments may beperformed by any desired entity. It should be recognized that action ofsuch a process may be performed by any entity as desired in variousembodiments.

Some embodiments may include one or more processes that may be performedby a system 101, a payment processing service 109, a user, a merchant,and/or a payment processing device in any combination. FIG. 7illustrates a non-limiting example of such a process. Such a process maybe performed by one or more servers and/or processors. In someembodiments, such a process may be performed at least in part by apayment processing device.

As indicated at block 701, some embodiments may include connecting to apayment processing service. Such connecting may be performed by apayment processing device of a merchant. Such connecting may includeaccepting a connection request such as picking up a phone call, using amodem to demodulate information, accepting an incoming packet over adata cable, and so on. Such connecting may include making a connectionrequest such as dialing a phone number, using a modem to modulateinformation, transmitting an outgoing packet over a data cable, and soon. In some embodiments, as discussed elsewhere, such a connection mayinclude an on demand connection, a constant connection and so on. Insome embodiments, a periodic, continuous, occasional, constant and so onconnection and/or periodic polling of a payment processing service fornon-payment information may be initiated by a payment processing device.In some embodiments, a payment processing service may push suchinformation to a payment processing device when it is available inaddition to and/or as an alternative to such polling.

As indicated at block 703, some embodiments may include receivinginformation about an order. Such information may be received by apayment processing device of a merchant. Such information may bereceived from a payment processing service, a system 101, a user, and/orany other entity. Such information may be received in a format readableby a payment processing device. Such information may be received usingan established connection from block 701. Such information may indicateone or more ordered items, one or more confirmation items, one or moredelivery and/or pickup items, one or more special instructions, and/orany other desired information. Such information may be received inmultiple portions at a same or different time (e.g., items ordered firstthen later delivery confirmation, first page first, then second pageafter a next page button is pressed, all information at one time, etc.).Various examples of such information and transmitting such informationthat may apply in some embodiments are given elsewhere herein.

As indicated at block 705, some embodiments may include outputtinginformation about an order. Such outputting may be performed by apayment processing device and/or accessory. Such outputting may beperformed in response to the receiving of block 703. Such outputting mayinclude displaying onscreen, printing, and so on. In some embodiments,outputting may include outputting such that a item break does not occurat a screen break or a paper break, for example. Outputting may includeoutputting confirmation information that may be part of and/or receivedwith the order information. Various examples and discussions ofoutputting are described elsewhere herein that may apply.

As indicated at block 707, some embodiments may include receiving inputindentifying a confirmation of the order. Such receiving may beperformed by a payment processing device. Such receiving may includereceiving input from a merchant, such as button presses, touch screenpresses, and so on. Such confirmation may be on a per order basis and/ora per item basis. Such confirmation may include a confirmation for adelivery method and/or time. Such confirmation may include a change toone or more elements of the information, such as an adjustment to thedelivery time. Such confirmation may include entry of a code, navigationof a menu, pressing of a confirmation button, and so on. Variousexamples of confirmation that may apply are desired elsewhere herein.

As indicated at block 709, some embodiments may include transmittingconfirmation information. Such transmitting may be performed by apayment processing device of a merchant. Such transmitting may be inresponse to the input received by the payment processing device. Suchtransmitting may be using the established connection of block 701. Suchtransmitting may include transmitting in a desired format and/orformatting to that format. Such transmitting may include transmitting toa payment processing service, a system 101, a user, and so on. Variousexamples of transmitting that may apply are desired elsewhere herein.

In some embodiments, if a confirmation includes change to an order item,such as a change to a time and/or price is entered, such information maybe communicated to a payment processing service and/or any other entityand reported to the user, the delivery agent, a credit card, and so on.Such a recipient may properly any timing and/or expectations as desired.

Various other examples of confirmation that may be used in someembodiments and that may not involve transmitting, such as using anautomated telephone system, are described elsewhere herein.

Some embodiments may include transmitting additional information, suchas cancellation of and order, non-confirmation information, order changeinformation, and so on. Such information may be transmitting in responseto input form a merchant, in response to receiving information from apayment processing service, unilaterally by the merchant, and so on.

Some embodiments may include making food and/or other items, deliveringsuch items to a user, processing payment, performing a service for auser, and so on.

It should be recognized that while FIG. 7 illustrate one non-limitingexample method, other embodiments may include any method desired whichmay include same or different actions in any desired order and/ornumber. It should be recognized that while the above description isgiven in terms of order information, that similar methods may be used toprovide any desired non-payment information, such as reservationinformation, shipping of goods (e.g., wines, ingredients, and so on)information, and/or any other desired non-payment information. It shouldbe recognized that while non-payment information may be communicated insome embodiments, payment information may be communicated in addition tosuch non-payment information to and/or form the merchant at any desiredstep in any method (e.g., a payment method and/or authorization may betransmitted to the merchant along with the order and/or in response to aconfirmation by the merchant). Some embodiments of FIG. 7 may beperformed by a payment processing device. Some embodiments may beperformed by any desired entity. It should be recognized that action ofsuch a process may be performed by any entity as desired in variousembodiments.

In some embodiments, to facilitate entry of information using a paymentprocessing device, some embodiments may include ea menu. Such a menu maychange in response to key presses, touch screen touches, and/or anyother input. Display menus for entry of the information in response tokey presses. Some example menu prompts and interactions that may be usedin some embodiments are shown in FIG. 8.

It should be recognized that while some embodiments are described interms of a restaurant, some embodiments may include a retail store, aservice provider, and/or any other desired merchant and/or entity.

In some embodiments, various entities may be paid for performance of oneor more actions. For example, a delivery agent may be paid fordelivering an item, a payment processing service may be paid forprocessing a payment, a payment processing service may be paid fortransmitting non-payment communication, a referral service may be paidfor providing a referral. In some embodiments, such payment may comefrom a merchant, and/or money received by a merchant.

Some embodiments may include various methods and/or systems that mayfacilitate order submission. For example, such orders may be submittedthrough a user interface such as a website as described elsewhereherein. As another example, such orders may be submitted using an easyorder interface. Such an easy order interface may allow a user to submita favorite order, for example, with a single actuation (e.g., a singleor double click on an icon on a desktop). Such an easy order interfacemay include a hyperlink, a computer program, a software widget, and soon.

It is recognized that a user may have a favorite and/or commonly madeorder. It is recognized that accessing a website in a traditional methodmay take more time than is needed to place such an order in someembodiments. In some embodiments, an easy order interface may be used toimprove the speed and/or efficiency of order placement for example, forsuch favorite and/or commonly made orders compared to traditionalwebsite order entry.

FIG. 9 illustrates one non-limiting example method that may be used insome embodiments. Such a process may be performed, for example by system101, a user, and/or any entity or combination of entities. Such aprocess may be performed by one or more servers and/or processors. Sucha process may be used to implement an easy ordering interface in someembodiments.

As indicated at block 901, some embodiments may include establishing aneasy ordering interface for an order. In some embodiments, an easy orderinterface may enable a user to place an order in a non-traditionalmanner. In some embodiments, an easy order interface may enable a userto place an order through a single actuation (e.g., a single click on anicon, a single click on a link, a double click on an icon, a doubleclick on a link, a press of a button, and so on). In some embodiments,establishing an easy ordering interface may include establishing one ormore orders to be placed using the easy ordering interface, establishinga payment method for the one or more orders, establishing an interfacefor the easy ordering interface, and/or establishing any desiredinformation to place an order may be performed such as establishing auser account and/or information. Such actions may be performed, forexample, by a user, by a system 101 and/or by any other desired entity.Such an interface may include an icon (e.g., on a desktop, start menu,etc.). Establishing may include placing an icon on a computing device.

In some embodiments, establishing one or more orders to be placed usingthe easy ordering interface may include receiving a selection of item(s)and/or merchant(s) from a user. Such items and/or merchant may beselected and/or otherwise entered by a user through a user interface,for example. Such a selection may be received by a program and/orprocessor of a user device. Such a selection may be received by a system101. Such a selection may indicate one or more items to be ordered usingthe easy order interface from one or more merchants. Establishing one ormore orders may include storing information about the orders. Suchinformation may be stored locally on a user's device, remotely on asystem 101, remotely at a merchant, and/or by any desired entity. Forexample, in some embodiments, such an order may be stored by a computerprogram operating on a user's computer device, may be embedded in ahyperlink (e.g., as a code, in plaintext, etc.), may be stored at system101, and so on.

In some embodiments, establishing a payment method may include receivinginformation about a payment from the user. Such information may beselected and/or otherwise entered by the user through a user interface.Such information may include, for example, a credit card number, a debitcard number, a corporate account number, a selection of cash payment,and so on. Such information may be received by a program and/orprocessor of a user device. Such information may be received by a system101. Such information may be used as a payment method for orders placedusing the easy order interface. Establishing the payment method mayinclude storing payment information. Such information may be storedlocally on a user's device, remotely on a system 101, remotely at amerchant, and/or by any desired entity. For example, in someembodiments, such information may be stored by a computer programoperating on a user's computer device, may be embedded in a hyperlink(e.g., as a code, in plaintext, etc.), may be stored at system 101, andso on

In some embodiments, establishing an interface for the easy orderinginterface may include storing information on a computing device. Suchinformation may include, for example, computer code, order information,payment information, merchant information, item information, ahyperlink, xml code, user information, a software program, and/oranother desired information, Such information may be stored on system101, by a merchant, on a user computing device, and/or by any otterdesired entity. For example, in some embodiments, an icon on a desktop,a start menu, a quick launch menu, and so on by be created thatactivates a program and/or hyperlink. The hyperlink or programassociated therewith may store the information in a plain text and/orcode version. For example, clicking on the icon may cause theinformation to be transmitted from a user to a system 101. In someembodiments clicking on such an icon may cause an indication of theorder to be sent to system 101. System 101 may interpret the indicationto retrieve the actual order. For example, a code identifying the ordermay be sent and the system may interpret the code by looking up thestored information at the system 101.

As indicated at block 903, some embodiments may include receiving anactuation of an easy ordering interface. Such actions may be performed,for example, by a user, by a system 101 and/or by any other desiredentity. Such an actuation may include, for example, clicking on a link,double clicking an icon, pressing a button, and so on. An actuation maybe performed by a user when the user desires to place the order. A user,for example, may double click on an icon on a desktop corresponding tothe easy ordering interface. The user computer may receive an indicationthat the user made such an actuation.

As indicated at block 905, some embodiments may include transmittinginformation about the order. Such actions may be performed, for example,by a user, by a system 101 and/or by any other desired entity. Such anaction may be performed in response to receiving the actuation. Suchtransmitting may include transmitting to system 101 from a usercomputing device. The information transmitted may include actual itemsfor an order, a code identifying an order, and so on. In someembodiments, payment information may be transmitted, informationidentifying a user may be transmitted, any information desired tocomplete an order may be transmitted, and so on. In some embodiments,such a transmitting may be performed in response only to receiving anactuation. For example, no further input may be needed and/or requestedto may such a transmission. Such a transmission may be made withoutrequesting and/or receiving any and/or additional input from a user(e.g., no request for payment information, no request for password, andso on).

As indicated at block 907, some embodiments may include receivinginformation about the order. Such actions may be performed, for example,by a user, by a system 101 and/or by any other desired entity. Such anaction may be performed in response to the transmitting of theinformation.

As indicated at block 909, some embodiments may include processing theorder information. Such actions may be performed, for example, by auser, by a system 101 and/or by any other desired entity. Such an actionmay be performed in response to the receiving of the information. Suchprocessing may include determining items, a user, a payment and so onfor the order, such as by using a look up table keyed with theinformation (e.g., a code). Such processing may include authorizing acharge, such a through a payment processing service. Such processing mayinclude arranging fulfillment of the order, such as by transmittinginformation to a merchant and/or delivery agent as described elsewhereherein.

In some embodiments, processing an order may include facilitatingdelivery. Such delivery may include delivery of items of an order from amerchant. Such delivery may be facilitated in response to receiving anindication of the actuation, in response to receiving information aboutan order, and so on. In some embodiments, such facilitation may beperformed without requesting input from a user.

In some embodiments, processing an order may include completion of apayment. Such a payment may be for items from a merchant. Such acompletion may be performed in response to receiving an indication ofthe actuation, in response to receiving information about an order, andso on. In some embodiments, such completion may be performed withoutrequesting input from a user. Such a payment may include a charge on acredit card.

In some embodiments, delivery may include delivery of a pre-establishedset of items from a merchant to a user. In some embodiments, completionof a payment may include completion of a pre-established payment for theitems. Such pre-establishing may include establishing with the userinterface, prior to receiving an indication of an actuation, prior to anactuation, and so on (e.g., by storing information at a system 101, at auser device, and so on).

In some embodiments, such a method may allow a user to have an orderfulfilled with no further action on the user's part, such as no entry ofinformation in an interface. Accordingly, a single actuation may allow auser to place an order. Some embodiments may include asking a user forconfirmation to avoid accidental order placement. Some embodiments mayinclude notifying a user if the order cannot be fulfilled such asbecause a merchant is closed.

Although an example is given with a single order and/or merchant, itshould be recognized that any number of orders and or merchants may beincluded in other embodiments. For example, an order may include aweekly shopping list from a plurality of merchants that the user wouldlike placed each week. An order may include a series of orders that arerun through in order before resetting (e.g., first click is order 1,second click is order 2, then repeat). In some embodiments, separateeasy ordering interfaces may be established for different orders.

It should be recognized that although some examples are given in termsof a single transaction, some embodiments may include any number oftransactions. For example, a plurality of orders may be placed using aneasy ordering interface in response to a plurality of actuations of theeasy ordering interface. A plurality of indications of actuation of aninterface may be received by a system 101 and in response, respectiveorders may be fulfilled.

It should be recognized that while FIG. 9 illustrate one non-limitingexample method, other embodiments may include any method desired whichmay include same or different actions in any desired order and/ornumber. It should be recognized that action of such a process may beperformed by any entity as desired in various embodiments.

In some embodiments, a service that provides referrals of orders to oneor more merchants, such as some embodiments that may be describedherein, may charge a fee to a merchant for such referrals. Such a feemay include a flat dollar amount, a percentage, a fee based on a servicelevel, a fee based on a number of orders referred, and so on. Forexample, in some embodiments, a merchant may pay a base fee for a highlevel of service that includes an unlimited number of orders free ofcharge after the base fee is paid. In some embodiments, a merchant maypay no base fee, but may be charged a higher amount per order referred.In some embodiments, a merchant may pay, for example, about 10% of apurchase price associated with an order to a referral service and/ordelivery service that refers the order to the merchant and/or providesdelivery service for the order.

In some embodiments, a merchant, referral service, delivery service,and/or one or more service providers may be separate entities acting toprovide a delivery and/or other service to a customer. Some embodimentsmay include allocating a payment for an order among the serviceproviders. In some embodiments, each such service provider may agree toa allocation before performing a service (e.g., through a biddingprocess, through a contractual agreement, and so on). In someembodiments, a merchant, a referral service provider, and/or any otherentity may receive the payment and provide a portion to each otherservice provider according to the allocation. In some embodiments, thepayment to the service providers may be taken from a payment to themerchant for the purchase price, from a portion due a referral provider(e.g., 10% cut), as a service fee charged to a customer, and so on.

Some embodiments may include various methods and/or systems that mayfacilitate delivery and/or providing/choosing any service provider. Someexamples of choosing a service provider are given below in terms of adelivery agent, but it should be recognized that similar and/oralternative methods may be used for choosing any desired serviceprovider. In some embodiments, facilitating delivery may includedetermining a delivery agent. Such a delivery agent may be a deliveryagent of a merchant, a delivery agent of a user, a delivery agent ofsystem 101, a third party delivery agent, and so on. In someembodiments, determining a delivery agent may include determining adelivery agent through an auction. In some embodiments, determining adelivery agent may include determining a delivery agent based on a pricequote for the delivery by each of a plurality of delivery agents. Insome embodiments, determining a delivery agent may include determining adelivery agent based on a time of delivery quote for each of a pluralityof delivery agents. Some embodiments may use such a method to determinea most effective delivery agent for one or more orders. Some embodimentsmay include delivery agents bidding on an opportunity to make one ormore deliveries. Some embodiments may include determining a deliveryagent based on a rating of the delivery agent. Some embodiments mayinclude determining a delivery agent based on a qualification of thedelivery agent.

In some embodiments, third party delivery agents, proprietary deliveryagents, customers to whom a delivery is to be made, merchantsthemselves, and/or any other desired entity may compete in such anauction. For example, a third party service may place a bid against adelivery agent that normally works with a merchant and/or is paid by amerchant in an attempt to undercut the merchants normal delivery servicein some embodiments. In some embodiments, a customer may place a bidand/or maximum delivery charge above which the customer will pick upfrom the merchant himself. In some embodiments, if no delivery agentbids less than the customer's bid, delivery may not be provided. In someembodiments, the customer may receive the bid amount. In otherembodiments, the customer may not receive the bid amount. In someembodiments, third party delivery agents (e.g., cab drivers, truckdrivers, college students with cars, and so on) may bid against oneanother.

It is recognized that a merchant may desire to provide delivery servicesto a user. It is recognized that a plurality of individuals may act asdelivery agents independent and/or in connection with one or moremerchants. In some embodiments, an auction may be used to determine aneffective delivery agent for an order from a particular merchant. Suchauction system may be used to determine an effective service providerfor any desired service (e.g., a packer, a receiver, a merchant itself,and so on).

FIG. 10 illustrates one non-limiting example method that may be used insome embodiments. Such a process may be performed, for example by system101, a user, a merchant, and/or any entity or combination of entities.Such a process may be performed by one or more servers and/orprocessors. Such a process may be used to determine a delivery agent forone or more orders.

As indicated at block 1001, some embodiments may include receivinginformation about one or more orders. Such information may include alocation for delivery, a location for pickup, information about amerchant, information about items, a delivery time and/or time period,and so on. When location is referenced, it may include a location of auser, a location of a delivery, a location of a merchant, a location ofa pickup, a location of a delivery agent, and/or any desired location.Various examples of order information and receiving are describedelsewhere herein. Such an action may be performed, for example, by auser device, a merchant, system 101, and so on.

Some embodiments may include determining that an auction process fordetermining a delivery agent and/or any desired service provider shouldbe performed. Such a determination may include determining that no otherdelivery agent has already been contracted to perform the delivery. Sucha determination may include determining that a merchant does not havetheir own delivery service. Such an auction process may include part ofthe method in FIG. 10. Such an auction process for example, may includereceiving bids, and determining that a delivery agent should perform adelivery based on the bids.

In some embodiments, such a determination may include making adetermination that a auction should be used to determine a merchant froma set of merchants that may provide a good, a packer that may pack goodsat a merchant, a picker that may pick goods from a set of goods at amerchant (e.g., pick fruit from a grocery store), a receiver that mayreceive goods at a delivery location, a payment processor from a set ofpayment processors, a searcher from a set of possible searchers (e.g., aperson that searches for a good at a plurality of merchants), and/or anydesired service provider such as one that may be involved in aplacement, fulfillment, delivery, payment, and so on of a good from onelocation to another location.

As indicated at block 1003, some embodiments may include transmittingorder information to one or more delivery agents and/or other serviceproviders. Such information may be transmitted to a plurality ofdelivery agents that are part of an auction system for a particulargeographical area. Some embodiments may include providing orderinformation to one or more delivery agents in any manner includingtransmission. Such information may and/or may not include allinformation about an order (e.g., some information such as identitiesmay be kept hidden for privacy reasons). Such information may include anext and/or prior service provider in a chain of service providers(e.g., a packer from whom receipt of goods is made, a receiver to whomgoods are delivered). Delivery agents may register with such a serviceand indicate what types of orders to receive, when they operate, wherethey operate, a form to receive information in, and so on. Suchtransmitting may include transmitting via a central website thatdisplays such information to delivery agents such as those that sign in.Such transmitting may include sending an email, a text message, awebsite, an electronic message, and so on. Such transmitting may includetransmitting to a software program run by a delivery agent. Suchtransmitting may be performed in response to receiving the orderinformation, may be performed in response to determining that an auctionfor a delivery agent should be performed, in response to determiningthat a merchant does not have a proprietary delivery agent, and so on.

In some embodiments, such transmitted information may include a desiredlevel of specificity. For example such information may include exactinformation and/or inexact information regarding time, locations, and soon. For example, an indication of a location may include an exactlocation (e.g., an address), an approximate location (e.g., a crossstreet, a region, a distance (e.g., exact, approximate) from anotherlocation, and so on).

Some embodiments may include filtering transmission of such informationto service providers with desired characteristics. For example, suchinformation may only be transmitted to a service provider that isdetermined to possess a desired characteristic. Some examplecharacteristics may include, an insurance amount, a rating by othercustomers, a rating by people in a social network (e.g., a socialnetwork of the customer, a social network of a merchant, etc.), alicense to perform an action (e.g., a license to transport a particulargood), location of agent, source, destination, etc., equipment requiredand/or desired to perform a service (e.g., a truck large enough to carrya good, a refrigerated vehicle for transportation of refrigeratedgoods), a desired bonding method fulfilled (e.g., social security numberprovided, address provided, money provided, insurance obtained,university ID provided, a background check performed, and so on),availability during a desired time, and/or any desired characteristic.In some embodiments, an originator of order information may submit suchfiltering characteristics (e.g., a customer submitting an order, amerchant that submits information about an order for delivery to acustomer). In some embodiments, a default set of filtering criteria maybe used.

As indicated at block 1005, some embodiments may include receiving thetransmitted order information. Such information may be receiving by oneor more delivery agents. Such information may be received, for example,by a program run by a delivery agent and displayed to the delivery agentthrough a user interface. Such information may be received by a deliveryagent through a website or other such interface. In some embodiments,filtering ma take place at a receipt end. For example, in someembodiments received and/or transmitted information may indicate adesired characteristic and a receiving entity may determine if anassociated entity meets such a characteristic before acting on thereceived information to initiate a possible bid.

In some embodiments, a delivery agent may determine a bid to be placedregarding the delivery of the order. Such a bid may include a cost formaking the delivery. Such a bid may include a time and/or time frame formaking the delivery. The time and/or time frame may match and/or notmatch the time and/or time frame associated with an order. Such a bidmay be made based on an availability of a delivery agent. For example,if a delivery service has one of a group of deliverers available at atime, the delivery service may place a bid on making the delivery. Acost of the bid may be based on a cost of performing the service, suchas distance traveled by the agent to perform the service, risk taken toperform the service, and so on. A time may be based on an availabilityof a delivery agent and/or a distance to travel for the order. Acomputer program may be configured to calculate such information anddetermine the bid and place the bid in response to receiving suchinformation and/or information about other obligation of a deliveryservice. A delivery agent may refer to an individual and/or a pluralityof agents working together. Some embodiments may include enteringinformation about a bid in a user interface, through an API, and so on.

In some embodiments, a portion of a bid may be based on a location. Insome embodiments, for example, a portion of a bid may be based on alocation of a delivery agent and/or employee of a delivery service(e.g., an employee that may perform the delivery). For example, in someembodiments, a price for a bid may be based on a distance that aemployee may need to travel from a current location to a merchantlocation and then to a user location to perform a delivery. As anotherexample, a time and/or time frame may be based on a location. Forexample, a time may be based on a distance that an employee may need totravel from a current location to a merchant location and then to a userlocation.

In some embodiments, a price may be based on any desired characteristicof an order and/or service to be provided. For example, such a price maybe based on a quantity of food items, a weight of items, a cost ofitems, a risk of providing delivery (e.g., risk of being late, danger ofa neighborhood, risk of being caught in traffic, and so on). It shouldbe recognized that although examples are given in which a bid is basedon cost, location, and other characteristics that a bid may be based onanything as desired.

As indicated at block 1007, some embodiments may include may includereceiving an indication of a bid for delivery of the order. Such anindication may be received by a device of a delivery agent. Such anindication may be received in response to receiving information aboutthe order. Such a bid may include a cost of performing a delivery, atime for completion of the delivery, and so on.

As indicated at block 1009, some embodiments may include transmittingthe bid. Such transmitting may be performed in response to receiving theindication of the bid. Such transmitting may include transmitting from adelivery agent. Such transmitting may include transmitting to a user, amerchant, a system 101, and so on.

As indicated at block 1011, some embodiments may include receiving aplurality of bids to make a delivery. Such bids may be received inresponse to transmissions of the bids. Such bids may be received fromdelivery agents. Such bids may be received through a website. Such bidsmay include information about costs, times and/or time frames, and soon.

It should be recognized that any number of bids may be received from anynumber of delivery agents and/or service providers, that any number ofdelivery agents and/or service providers may determine, receive,transmit bids in any manner as desired in any embodiment.

In some embodiments, one or more bids may include an indication of aprice. Such a price may include a price to be paid to the delivery agentif the bid is accepted and the delivery is performed. Such a price mayinclude a percentage of a referral fee, a percentage of a price forgoods, a flat fee, and so on. For example, in some embodiments such aprice may include a percentage (e.g., 25%) of a fee paid to a referralservice for referral of an order to a merchant.

In some embodiments, one or more bids may include an indication of atime and/or time frame. Such a time and/or time frame may include a timeand/or time frame that a delivery agent agreed to perform the deliveryif the bid is accepted.

As indicated at block 1013, some embodiments may include selecting adelivery agent based on the plurality of bids. Such a selection may beperformed at an end of a time period for bidding. Such a selection maybe performed when a bid with a desired property is received. Such aselection may be performed in response to receiving one or more bids.Such a selection may be performed by a system 101, a user, a merchant,and so on. Such a selection may be based on a cost associated with thebid. For example, a lowest cost bid may be selected. Such a selectionmay be based on a reputation of delivery agent. For example, a bid froman agent with a better reputation may be selected over a bid from anagent with a lower reputation. Such a selection may be based on a timeand/or time frame associated with a bid. For example, a bid with a timeand/or time frame that most closely matches a time and/or time frameassociated with an order may be selected. In some embodiments anydesired property may be used to base a selection. In some embodimentsany combination of properties may be used to selected a delivery agentbased on bids. For example, a formula that weighs variouscharacteristics may be used to select a bid that results in the highestoverall weight output by the formula when the various properties areinput into the formula. Any method of determination may be used in anyembodiment, including selection. Such selection may be based on one ormore of the bids.

In some embodiments, bids associated with service providers that haveand/or do not have one or more characteristics may be filtered out. Suchfiltered out bids may not be used to determine which service provider toselect. For example, in some embodiments, bids from delivery agents thatdo not have a minimum rating, a desired equipment, a desired bonding,and so on may be filtered out.

In some embodiments, such filtered out bids may be used nonetheless ifno other bids are received, and/or if the other bids that are receivedare determined to be inadequate. For example, in some embodiments, ifthe other bids are too high, then the filtered out bids may be used(e.g., if they are 25% higher, 50% higher, 50$ higher, 10$ higher, andso on). As another example, if there are not enough other bids, then oneor more of the filtered out bids may be used. In some embodiments, usingthe filtered out bids may include using the filtered out bids in anorder based on price, in an order based on another characteristic, andso on. For example, in some embodiments if the filtered out bids arefiltered out based on a lack of a characteristic (e.g., rating), thenthe bids with the closest characteristic to the desired characteristicmay be used before other bids (e.g., filtered out bids with highestrating may be used before those with lowest rating). For example, if a 4star rating is required, but no bids with 4 star ratings are received,then bids with 3 stars may be used instead.

In some embodiments, such selection may include selecting a lowestpriced bid. For example such selecting may include determining that aprice associated with a selected delivery agent is lower than one ormore other bids. In some embodiments, such selection may includeselecting a bid that matches a time and/or time frame associated with anorder. For example, such a selection may include determining that a timeand/or time frame associated with a selected delivery agent matches atime and/or time frame of an order. It should be recognized that suchexamples of selection are given as examples only and that any desiredmethod may be used. For example, some embodiments may include using analgorithm that includes at least one of a time and/or time frameassociated with an order, a time and/or time frame associated with oneor more bids, and/or a price associated with one or more bids. Forexample, such an algorithm may include a formula. For example, such analgorithm may weigh time differences and cost to determine a lowest costdelivery agent that may delivery near a desired time.

As indicated at block 1015, some embodiments may include facilitatingdelivery using the selected delivery agent. Such an action may beperformed in response to selecting the agent. Such an action may beperformed by a merchant, a user, system 101, and so on. Facilitatingdelivery may include transmitting information about the delivery to thedelivery agent, arranging payment, making a payment, and so on. Suchinformation may include additional information to that transmitted toelicit a bid, such as order details, location information, and so on.Such facilitating may include transmitting a request to perform thedelivery. A delivery service provider pay receive such information andfacilitate delivery, for example by performing the delivery, bynotifying an employee, and so on.

It should be recognized that although various example are given in termsof determining a delivery agent after an single order is placed, thatsome embodiments may include determining a delivery agent before anorder is placed and/or for more than one order. For example, an auctionmay be used for a next order, for orders in a time period in the future,for a next set of orders, for orders in a geographic area, for orders ina slice of time in the future, for orders on particular days, for ordersin a month, for a series of orders, for a group of orders, and so on.

It should be recognized that when a delivery agent is referenced hereinthat such a reference is given as a non-limiting example only. Someembodiments may include a delivery service provider with any number ofemployees. Some embodiments may include a delivery service provider thatacts as an agent. Some embodiments may include a delivery serviceprovider that acts as a principle.

It should be recognized that although various examples are given inwhich a delivery agent places one bid, that some embodiments may includeany desired auction system. For example, a traditional auction may beused, a reverse auction may be used, a silent auction may be used, asecret auction may be used, an open auction may be used, and so on. Insome embodiments, an auction may have a reserve price and/or time. Insome embodiments, an auction may have a limited period of time. In someembodiments, a delivery agent may submit changes to a bid and/or updatedbids. In some embodiments a delivery agent may be able to seeinformation about competing bids. In some embodiments, information aboutother delivery agent bids may be provided to a delivery agent. In someembodiments more than one bid may be received from a delivery agent.

In some embodiments, for example, a delivery agent may receive anindication of a bid by another delivery agent. In response to receivingsuch an indication, the delivery agent may determine a bid to be placed.Such a bid may be a second bid by the delivery agent. Such a bid may befor a lower price than a first bid by the delivery agent. Such a bid maybe for a better time than the first bid. Such a bid may be for a lowerprice and/or better time than the bid by the other delivery agent. Sucha bid may be based on cost of providing the service. In response todetermining such a bid, an indication may be transmitted.

It should be recognized that while FIG. 10 illustrate one non-limitingexample method, other embodiments may include any method desired whichmay include same or different actions in any desired order and/ornumber. It should be recognized that action of such a process may beperformed by any entity as desired in various embodiments.

It should be recognized that although various examples are given withmultiple entities acting as intermediaries, that some embodiments mayinclude no such intermediaries, more such intermediaries, ad/ordifferent such intermediary. For example, some embodiments may include adistributed system. Some embodiments may include a system where a user,a payment processing service, and/or a system a system 101, and/orpayment processing device perform any role that may have been performedby one of the others. For example, a user may directly communicate witha payment processing device, may perform payment processing, and so on.Such actions and/or other actions may be performed by any entity in anycombination.

Various examples may refer to a system such as system 101. It should berecognized that such references are given as examples only and thatsystem 101 and FIG. 1 are both given as examples only. Variousembodiments may include any system(s) in any configuration and/or nosystem that may or may not include any characteristics similar to system101 and any reference to system 101 may refer to any other system withor without such characteristics.

It should be recognized that although various embodiments are given interms of a good being delivery and/or otherwise provided, that someembodiments may relate to providing a service rather than a good. Forexample, selection of a service provider of any sort may be made in someembodiments, selection of goods to be used by a service provider may bemade in some embodiments, selection of sub-contractor(s) to a serviceprovider may be made in some embodiments, providing any such selecteditem may be made in some embodiments, and so on.

Multiple Agent Examples

Some embodiments may have been described in terms of a single deliveryagent and/or other service provider performing a delivery or otherservice from a single and/or multiple merchants to a single and/ormultiple customers. In some embodiments, multiple delivery agents and/orother service providers may be used to make a single and/or multipledeliveries and/or perform any desired service involving a single and/ormultiple sources, and/or a single and/or multiple customers and/ordestinations. Some embodiments may include facilitating using multipleservice providers to provide a service as desired. FIG. 11 illustratesan example process that may be performed in some embodiments.

One to One with Multiple Agents Examples

In some embodiments, multiple service providers may perform a similarfunction to facilitate providing a service that involves a single sourceand a single customer. For example, one or more goods may be deliveredfrom a single source to a single destination by multiple deliveryagents. As another example, multiple pickers and/or packers may pickand/or pack goods at a single merchant for delivery to and/or pickup bya single customer. Some embodiments may include determining thatmultiple service agents should be used, selecting the service agents,coordinating the service agents, facilitating the service beingprovided, and so on.

Some embodiments may include receiving information about an order asindicated at block 1101. Such information for example may indicate anydesired parameters that may define an order (e.g., source, destination,goods, etc.). Receiving information about an order is describedelsewhere herein.

Some embodiments may include determining that multiple service agentsare to be used to fulfill an order as indicated at block 1103. Such adetermination may be based on one or more characteristics of an order,one or more bids received for the order, availability of one or moreservice agents, locations of one or more service agents, locations ofone or more of a source and a destination, information received from oneor more service agents, and so on.

For example such a determination may be based on a combination of bidsby two separate service agents to complete parts of an order that sum toa completion of the order being lower than other bids.

As an example, a determination may be made based on a size of an orderand/or a capacity of a service agent to perform a service. For example,in some embodiments, a determination may be made that two or moredelivery agents may be used to fulfill an order based on a size of theorder and a carrying capacity of each of the delivery agents. A singlemerchant may otherwise be required to make multiple rips to fulfill theorder. In some embodiments such a determination may be made even ifthere is an option to fulfill the order with a single merchant that hasa larger carrying capacity. For example, if bids in an auction processare received and the plurality of delivery agents result in a lower costthan the single larger carrying capacity delivery agent, it may bedetermined that a plurality of delivery agents should be used to fulfillthe order.

As an example, a determination may be based on an availability of one ormore service agents to perform a service. For example, in someembodiments, a determination may be made that two or more deliveryagents may be used to fulfill an order based on an availability of thetwo or more delivery agents to perform a portion of a transit for thedelivery. For example, in some embodiments, each of two or more deliveryagents may be available to perform a portion of a delivery but not theentire delivery. In some embodiments, when combined (e.g., if an orderis passed from a first to a second agent to complete delivery), suchportions may sum to a complete delivery. Determining that such two ormore delivery agents should be used to complete portions of transit thatmay sum to a whole delivery may be made based on cost (e.g., to minimizecost of delivery), based on availability (e.g., because no agent isavailable to make a complete delivery), to maximize agent utilization(e.g., because the two or more agents were unoccupied, because the twoor more agents were headed in a direction for the delivery anyways,etc.), and so on.

Some embodiments may include selecting two or more service agents tofulfill an order as indicated at block 1105. Such selection may be madebased on bids for performing one or more portions of an order. Forexample, such delivery agents may be selected to minimize a cost ofdelivery while fulfilling desired characteristics of the delivery (e.g.,time, place, rating, etc.). Such a selection may be made based onavailability of delivery agents, locations of delivery agents, routes tomake a delivery, and so on. For example, such selection may be made tomaximize utilization of delivery agents, rearrange positions of deliveryagents so that they are more evenly distributed and/or distributed in amore ideal and/or desired pattern, minimize unused delivery agents,minimize time for a delivery to take place, and so on. Such selectionmay take place as a part of the determination of block 1103, inconnection with such determination, as a single action and/or set ofactions as block 1103, separate from such determination, and/or with orwithout any desired relationship to such determination.

For example, in some embodiments, a delivery agent that is proximate toa source and headed towards a destination already may be selected toperform a first part of a delivery. A second delivery agent that isgoing proximate to the destination and going to pass near the firstdelivery agent as the first delivery agent heads towards the destinationmay be selected to finish the delivery. The two may meet and passgood(s) for an order from the first to the second delivery agent fordelivery. A first and second picker that are at and/or near a merchantmay be selected for performing picking functions at the merchant. Thepickers may meet to combine picked goods into one order and/or may meetwith a delivery agent to pass the goods to the delivery agentseparately. Such a picker may include a delivery agent and/or amerchant. Some embodiments may include facilitating meetings of suchagents (e.g., communicating times and/or locations to the agents,communicating location identities to the agents, and so on).

In some embodiments, service agents and/or other sources may provideinformation to a service to allow such selection of a plurality ofdelivery agents. For example, delivery agents may provide GPS locationinformation, route information, carrying capacity information, and soon. In some embodiments, cab drivers may act as delivery agents, truckdrivers may act as delivery agents, people on their way home from workand/or running errands may act as delivery agents. Such agents mayindividually send information through a cell phone application, throughan email, through text message, and so on to a referral serviceprovider. In some embodiments, a central hub, such as a taxi cab serviceprovider, a truck driver dispatch, a website that monitors GPS locationsof individuals (e.g., a website such as facebook.com that may includelocation tags of updated messages indicating a location when the updateis made) and so on may report such information to a referral serviceprovider.

Some embodiments may include coordinating and/or facilitating afulfillment of an order using a plurality of service agents as indicatedat block 1107. For example, information may be communicated to each ofthe plurality of service agents identifying how to fulfill an order. Forexample, a first delivery agent may be given a time and place to be tomeet a second delivery agent to relay a good, a first delivery agent maybe given contact information for the second delivery agent, and so on.Any desired information that may allow an agent to help fulfill theorder may be provided to the agent. Such providing may includetransmitting, sending via email, texting, providing to a centralcommunicator (e.g., a cab dispatch), and so on.

Some embodiments may include additional service providers that may helpfacilitate two or more service providers provide a service. For example,in some embodiments, a middle man may act to hold goods at a meetingpoint. For example, a first agent may drop off goods at a secondmerchant, and the second delivery agent may pick up the goods from thesecond merchant. Any person and/or location may be used as a middlemanbetween two delivery agents. Such a middle man may be provided with afee for services. Such a middle man may be contacted by a referralservice to make an offer for such services in response to determiningthat such a middle man may be desired for facilitating a delivery. Sucha middle man may submit bids to act as a middle man through an auctionsystem.

It should be recognized that various examples of using multiple agentsto fulfill an order from one location to another location are given asexamples only.

Multiple to One with Multiple Agents Examples

In some embodiments, multiple service providers may perform a similarfunction to facilitate providing a service that involves multiplesources and a single customer. For example, one or more respective goodsmay be delivered from a plurality of respective sources to a singledestination by multiple delivery agents. As another example, multiplepickers and/or packers may pick and/or pack goods at a plurality ofrespective merchants for delivery to and/or pickup by a single customer.Some embodiments may include determining that multiple service agentsshould be used, selecting the service agents, coordinating the serviceagents, facilitating the service being provided, and so on.

Some embodiments may include, for example, a delivery from a pluralityof sources to a single destination. In some embodiments, such deliverymay involve the use of multiple delivery agents. For example, two ormore sources may be serviced by respective delivery agents. In someembodiments, delivery from such multiple sources may be sped up by usingmultiple delivery agents when compared to a single delivery agent. Forexample, such multiple delivery agents may perform delivery worksimultaneously rather than sequentially. A process similar to process1100 may be used in some embodiments in which multiple delivery agentsmay be used to deliver from multiple sources to a single destination.

Some embodiments may include determining delivery agents for two or moresources of a plurality of sources (e.g., each source, some sources). Insome embodiments, a single delivery agent may service more than one ofsource (e.g., sources that are geographically proximate, sourcesproximate to a route). Some embodiments may include a maximum number ofsources that may be serviced per delivery agent (e.g., about 5). Someembodiments may include a maximum distance between sources before anadditional delivery agent is added to servicing an order (e.g., 1 block,5 miles). Some embodiments may not include distance in such acalculation if the distance is along a route to a destination. Someembodiments may reference a distance from a route (e.g., expected route,usual route, identified route, ideal route).

In some embodiments it may be desirous to have delivery at a single timerather than at multiple times even if multiple delivery agents are used.In some embodiments coordination and/or facilitating of delivery mayinclude a plurality of delivery agents combining goods from multiplesources for delivery by a single delivery agent. Information regardingsuch a combining may be provided to each delivery agent (e.g., time,location, contact information, and so on regarding a meet up forcombining with one or more other delivery agents).

It should be recognized that various examples of using multiple deliveryagents to fulfill an order from multiple sources to single location aregiven as examples only. Other embodiments may include multiple agents ofany type to perform any desired service from multiple sources for anynumber of customers.

One to Many with Multiple Agents Examples

In some embodiments, multiple service providers may perform a similarfunction to facilitate providing a service that involves any number ofsources (e.g., one or more) and multiple customers. For example, one ormore goods may be delivered from a single source to a plurality ofdestinations by multiple delivery agents. As another example, multiplepickers and/or packers may pick and/or pack goods at a single locationfor delivery to and/or pickup by multiple customers. Some embodimentsmay include determining that multiple service agents should be used,selecting the service agents, coordinating the service agents,facilitating the service being provided, and so on.

Some embodiments may include a delivery from a single source to aplurality of destinations. In some embodiments, such delivery mayinvolve the use of multiple delivery agents. For example, one source maybe serviced by a single delivery agent that then delivers a first goodto one destination and passes on a second good to a second deliveryagent for delivery to a second destination. In some embodiments,delivery to multiple destinations may be sped up by using multipledelivery agents when compared to a single delivery agent. For example,such multiple delivery agents may perform delivery work simultaneouslyrather than sequentially. In some embodiments, using multiple deliveryagents in such a way may minimize cost by reducing redundant traveltime. A process similar to process 1100 may be used in some embodimentsin which multiple delivery agents may be used to deliver from a singlelocation to multiple destinations.

Some embodiments may include determining delivery agents for eachdestination of a plurality of destinations. In some embodiments, asingle delivery agent may service more than one of destination (e.g.,destinations that are geographically proximate). Some embodiments mayinclude a maximum number of destinations that may be serviced perdelivery agent (e.g., about 5). Some embodiments may include a maximumdistance between destinations before an additional delivery agent isadded to servicing an order (e.g., 5 miles). Some embodiments may notinclude distance in such a calculation if the distance is along a routeto a destination.

It should be recognized that various examples of using multiple deliveryagents to fulfill an order from a single source to multiple destinationsare given as examples only. Other embodiments may include any number ofagents (e.g., 1 or more, 2 or more) of any type to perform any desiredservice from any number of sources (e.g., 1 or more, 2 or more) for anynumber of customers (e.g., 1 or more, 2 or more).

Payment and Multiple Agents Examples

In some embodiments in which multiple service agents are used, paymentsfor one or more orders may be allocated among the agents according toone or more bids for services, pre-arranged fees, percentages of theservice performed, and so on. In some embodiments, payments may be madeand/or allocated at a later time to an agent for performing the service(e.g., at an end of a month when accounts are settled). In someembodiments, payments may be made and/or allocated before a service isperformed, up completion of a service, and so on. In some embodiments,an agent may collect money from a customer and/or a source and mayexchange money for payment with one or more other agents. In someembodiments, a delivery and/or referral service may mail checks, creditaccounts, identify that a payment is due, and so on to facilitate makingand/or allocating a payment. It should be recognized that any method ofallocating and/or distributing payment may be used.

Correction of Service Errors Examples

In some embodiments, an error in providing a service may occur. Someembodiments may include determining that such an error occurred, islikely to occur, will occur, and/or so on. In response to such adetermination, some embodiments may include taking one or more actionsto correct and/or prevent the error.

Determining that such an error occurred, will occur, is likely to occur,and/or other such determinations may be made in response to receivedinformation. For example, such a determination may be made in responseto, emailing, and so on to a referral/delivery service provider toidentify that a service has not been performed. As another example, sucha determination may be made in response to a service providercommunicating that they will not be able to perform the service. As yetanother example, such a determination may be made in response tolocation information identifying that a service provider is not in alocation to perform a service (e.g., GPS coordinates show that a pickeris not at a merchant to pick when they should be).

In some embodiments, if an error occurs with respect to a service, abidding process may be used to determine a new agent to take over thefirst agent's responsibility. In some embodiments, a first agent may beexcluded from bidding on the service and/or any service for a period oftime, a number of bids, forever, until restitution is made, and so on inresponse to the error occurring. In some embodiments, the first agentmay be responsible for paying the chosen agent for any additional costand/or to refund a customer for the first agent's failure. In someembodiments, a system may allocate payments to the second agent from thefirst agent accordingly, from the first agent to the customeraccordingly, and so on.

Various Combination Examples

Various examples of multiple agents acting together to fulfill one ormore orders are given as examples only. It should be recognized that anycombinations of agent actions may be used in any embodiment. Forexample, a single delivery agent may act to deliver one order, relay asecond order, pick a third order, and perform other desired action(s)for any desired order or otherwise (e.g., deliver a passenger somewhereif the agent is a cab driver, shop for groceries if the agent was goingto do that anyways, return a book to a library if the library is along aroute, etc.).

Device and/or Tracking Examples

Some embodiments may include one or more computing devices that mayperform one or more desired actions to facilitate fulfillment of one ormore orders by one or more agents. For example, some embodiments, mayinclude a computing device that performs actions related to tracking oflocations of one or more service providers, routes, locations ofsources, locations of destinations, locations of merchants, locations ofintermediaries, and so on. Such a system may receive GPS, address,and/or other location information identifying allocation of a serviceprovider, a merchant, a source, a location, and so on from any desiredsource (e.g., a central dispatcher, a website that monitors locations,an agent, a customer, a merchant, and so on). One or more mappingtechniques may be used to determine routes, distances, meeting points,and so on with respect to the locations. Monitoring such locationinformation and/or using one or more mapping techniques may allow asystem to determine if and when two agents meet (e.g., to relay a good),where a good meeting place may be, and so on.

A system monitoring such information may determine that an agent is notperforming a service (e.g. if the agent is not going in a properdirection, not in a proper location, etc.). As discussed above, inresponse to determining the agent location is not correct, the systemmay take a desired action to correct and/or prevent an error. Forexample, the system may find a replacement, may retransmit information,may request a verification that the service will be performed asdesired, and so on. Location information may be received form GPSdevices, a merchant, a computer system, a central GPS system (e.g., acab driver dispatcher, New York City cab monitoring service, etc.).

In some embodiments, one or more computer devices may perform anydesired actions to determine partial services, complete services, and/orfacilitate bidding for such sub and complete services. For example, insome embodiments, a system may identify deliveries and/or tasks thatneed service through an interface. The system may receive bids tocomplete the services and/or parts of the services. The system maydetermine that a set of bids for a set of parts makes up a wholeservice. The system may treat that set of bids as a bid for a completeservice. In some embodiments, a system may establish an auction for apart of a service if the system receives and/or otherwise determinesthat another part of the service has been bid on and/or assigned toanother service agent. If a bid is received for the other auction, thecombined set of bids may be treated as a bid for the complete service.It should be recognized that any method for determining a desire forbids on parts of a service, determining that a service agent shouldservice part of n order, soliciting interest in performing part of aservice, comparing costs of choosing multiple service agents over asingle service agent, and so on may be used and/or performed by acomputer device as desired.

Brick and Mortar Examples

Some embodiments may include facilitating delivery from a merchant basedon actions of a customer. A customer may identify goods for an order,identify delivery desires, make payments, and so on proximate to themerchant. Information may be transmitted to and/or received by adelivery/referral service, and a delivery may be facilitated inresponse. Such an embodiment may allow a customer to establish deliveryof goods from a merchant while proximate to a merchant (e.g., by using adelivery kiosk, by using a computing device, by interacting with anemployee, and so on).

For example, in some embodiments, a customer may be at a store andarrange for delivery of one or more goods sold by the store. In someembodiments, arranging for such a delivery may include accessing a webpage (e.g., from a smart phone, laptop, kiosk, etc.) to enterinformation about a delivery, interacting with an employee of themerchant who may enter delivery information through a POS terminal(e.g., a cash register, a credit card processing interface), laptop,telephone, and/or other device, sending a text or other communicationand so on. Some embodiments may include an identification of a set ofgoods for an order, an identification of delivery desires, a receiptand/or transmission of delivery information, a facilitation of delivery,an allocation of money, and/or any desired actions.

Some embodiments may include identifying one or more goods. Suchidentification may include a customer choosing one or more goods offeredfor sale by a merchant. Such a customer may bring the goods to a POSterminal for checkout, pay for goods, and so on as is known by shoppers.Such identifying may include entering information into a POS terminal(e.g., by an employee). Such identifying may include receiving UPCand/or other identification information (e.g., by a processor of a POSterminal, by a kiosk, by a referral and/or delivery service). In someembodiments, a POS terminal may identify the goods based on informationentered (e.g., UPC scans, selections through a keypad). In someembodiments, such identifying may include identifying based on an ordernumber, determining and order number that represents the goods, and soon. An order number may be used to identify the order (e.g., a receiptmay be printed with an order number that may be used to identify thegoods). Such identifying may be made by a POS terminal, a kiosk, adelivery/referral system, and so on.

Some embodiments may include identifying one or more deliveryparameters. Such delivery parameters may include, for example, deliverytimes, delivery destinations, whether a customer must sign for delivery,names of allowed recipients, price for delivery, and/or any otherinformation that may define a delivery. Such identification may be madeby a customer, by a device, by an employee, and so on. For example, anemployee may operate a POS terminal (e.g., an employee may ask acustomer for such information and enter it into a POS terminal). Suchidentification may be made by a delivery/referral service system (e.g.,such a system may receive information identifying delivery parameters).Such identification may be made by a computer system (e.g., a kiosk intowhich a customer may enter such information).

Some embodiments may include communication regarding delivery and/ororder information. For example, in some embodiments, a delivery/referralsystem may receive information identifying one or more orders to fulfill(e.g., information that indicates that an order number is to bedelivered from a location to another location, the identified goodsand/or delivery parameters). In some embodiments, such information maybe transmitted, for example, from a kiosk into which a customer or otheruser may have entered information related to the delivery, from a POSterminal into which an employee has entered information related to thedelivery, from any device into which any entity has entered informationrelated to the delivery (e.g., a smart phone, a telephone, a laptop, andso on). Such information may be communicated in a form of an electronicmessage that may be interpreted in a desired manner. Such informationmay be communicated in response to identifying such information.

Some embodiments may include facilitating delivery of the goods from themerchant to the destination. Such facilitating may include thecommunication of information discussed above. Such facilitation mayinclude communication any information, and/or performing any otheractions that may aid in and/or perform the delivery of an order. Variousexamples of actions that may be performed to facilitate a delivery aregiven elsewhere herein. Such facilitating may be performed by a deliveryand/or referral system as described herein.

Some embodiments may include allocating a payment. For example, in someembodiments, a portion of a payment for the order may be allocated toone or more service agents and/or a delivery/referral service (e.g.,allocated to a delivery agent and/or a delivery/referral provider). Insome embodiments, a customer may make a payment above the purchase priceto pay for the delivery (e.g., as part of the sale transaction at a POSterminal, as part of a separate transaction through a kiosk or smartphone, etc.). In some embodiments no such extra payment may be made, butrather a portion of the price paid for the goods sold by the merchantmay be allocated to pay for such services. Allocation may be performedby a POS terminal, a kiosk, a delivery/referral system, and so on. Someembodiments may include settling such an allocation by transferringmoney. Such allocation may be performed in response to determining thata service has been performed, in response to determining that a servicehas been requested, in response to a facilitating of a delivery, and soon.

In some embodiments, facilitating a delivery may include facilitating apickup of one or more goods from a merchant. In some embodiments, apickup may take place from a merchant where an order is placed. In someembodiments, a pickup may take place elsewhere. For example, in someembodiments, a pickup may take place at another merchant of a same chainthat is located closer to the destination of the delivery (e.g., adifferent Best Buy store than where the customer places the order). Insome embodiments, a pickup may take place from a warehouse rather than astore. Some embodiments may include communication regarding the pickuplocation (e.g., as discussed above such as to a delivery agent). Someembodiments may include determining such a location for pickup. Such alocation may be determined based on a desired of a merchant, based on aninventory level, based on a distance of travel between source anddestination, and so on. Some embodiments may include communicating anidentity of a delivery agent to a merchant to authorize the agent tomake the pickup. Some embodiments may include communicating a bondinginformation (e.g. a password, an ID, etc.) to one or more of themerchant and/or delivery agent to authorize the pickup. Some embodimentsmay include determining such bonding information. Such communicationand/or determining may take place in response to choosing a deliveryagent to fulfill an order.

Some embodiments may include one or more computing devices that may actto facilitate such delivery. For example, in some embodiments, a POSterminal may take one or more actions (e.g., transmitting deliveryinformation, identifying an order and/or delivery information,determining a location for pickup, receive entry by an employee,identify an order number, provide one or more interfaces for entry ofinformation, allocate payment), a kiosk or other device operated by acustomer may take one or more actions (e.g., receive order numberinformation, receive goods information, receive delivery information,transmit information, provide one or more interfaces for entry ofinformation, determine pickup location, allocate payment), a deliveryand/or referral system may take one or more actions (e.g., facilitatedelivery, auction a delivery route, receive order, good, and/or deliveryinformation, arrange for delivery, transmit delivery information todelivery agents, allocate payment), and/or any computing device may takeany desired action.

As another example such as one illustrated in FIG. 12, some embodimentsmay include a point of sale terminal 1201 configured to receiveinformation about one or more items purchased at a merchant by acustomer, receive payment information for the purchase of the one ormore items, receive information about a destination 1203 for a deliveryof the one or more items, and transmit information about the delivery toa computing device 1205 of a delivery service to arrange for the one ormore items to be delivered from the merchant to the customer; and acomputing device of a delivery service configured to receive theinformation about the delivery from the point of sale terminal, initiatean auction to determine which of a plurality of delivery agents shoulddeliver the items from the merchant to the customer, select a deliveryagent 1207 based on the auction, and facilitate delivery of the itemsfrom the merchant to the customer using the selected delivery agent.Such a point of sale terminal may include a cash register.

Mobile Device Examples

Some embodiments may include identifying goods by a mobile device (e.g.,a smartphone). For example, a customer may scan a UPC code of a goodinto a smartphone as an identification of the good. Such identificationof the good may be used to facilitate delivery of the good.

In some embodiments, identification of goods for an order may beperformed by and/or using a portable computing device. For example, insome embodiments, a smart phone and/or cell phone having a camera may beused to identify goods for an order. For example, a customer may take apicture of a product and/or bar code, scan a bar code, enter informationidentifying a product, and so on. Such information may identify goodsfor an order. In some embodiments information transmitted about a goodmay include a picture of the good, a description of the good, a code(e.g., a UPC) identifying the good and so on. Such information may besent to a delivery agent, merchant, picker, packer, and so on tofacilitate delivery.

In some embodiments, information identifying goods for an order may betransmitted to a delivery/referral service. The delivery/referralservice may facilitate delivery of the goods to the customer (e.g., adestination identified by the customer). Various examples offacilitating delivery are given herein. In some embodiments,facilitating delivery may include facilitating a picking and/or packingof the goods. Facilitating picking of the goods may include transmittingan indication to a delivery agent and/or picking agent of the goods tobe picked (e.g., collected for the order). The agent may go to the storeand pick the goods from the shelf. In some embodiments, a merchant maypick goods for themselves. For example, a fax or other indication of thegoods may be sent to the merchant, the merchant may pick the goodsidentified. A picking agent and/or a separate packing agent may pack thegoods for delivery (e.g., place them in condition for delivery). Thepicking and/or packing agent may pass the goods on to the delivery agentin embodiments in which the delivery agent does not perform pickingand/or packing.

In some embodiments, a customer may pay for the goods and/or delivery tothe merchant (e.g., by identifying the goods to an employee), may payfor the goods and/or delivery upon delivery (e.g., the delivery agentmay accept the payment, the payment may be allocated to the merchant andso on from the received payment), may pay for the goods through themobile device (e.g., entering credit card or other information beforeduring and/or after placing the order through the mobile device. Paymentmay be allocated and/or distributed among parties as desired.

In some embodiments, any desired characteristics of a delivery may beentered through a mobile device interface and/or transmitted to adelivery/referral system. For example, a customer may identifyquantities of a good, time for delivery, location for delivery, and soon through an interface of a mobile device. Such information may betransmitted for use in facilitating delivery of the goods.

In some embodiments, merchant information may be included in informationidentifying an order and/or goods. Such merchant information mayidentify a merchant. Merchant information may be entered by a userthrough an interface. In some embodiments, merchant information mayinclude GPS coordinates of the merchant. Such information may betransmitted based on the location of the mobile device at a time ofscanning or other identification of a good. Such GPS information mayinclude an averaging of GPS coordinates of a plurality of goods, aplurality of GPS coordinates corresponding to respective goods, and soon. For example, such GPS coordinates of a plurality of goods may beused by a picking agent to more quickly locate goods (e.g., by going tothe GPS coordinates). Accordingly, such GPS information may betransmitted to a delivery agent, a picking agent, a merchant, and so on.Such GPS information may be used to identify a merchant to send paymentand/or order information to (e.g., based on recorded GPS information ofthe location of the merchant in a database of merchant GPS information.For example, GPS coordinates may be matched in a database of merchantGPS coordinates by a delivery/referral system to determine a merchant totransmit order information to and/or allocate payments to. It should berecognized that although GPS coordinates are given as an example, anylocation information may be used in various embodiments, such as atriangulated location, an estimated location, a location based onwireless network signals, and so on.

FIG. 13 illustrates an example method that may be used in someembodiments. As indicated at block 1301, such a method may includereceiving a plurality of respective indications of items captured by acamera of a cellular telephone (e.g., barcodes, pictures). As indicatedat block 1303, such a method may include receiving an indication of apayment for the items from the cellular telephone. As indicated at block1305, such a method may include receiving an indication of a destinationfor a delivery of the items from the cellular telephone and/or any otherorder related information (e.g., merchant, location of scans, time ofdelivery). As indicated at block 1307, such a method may includefacilitating delivery of the items to the destination using a selecteddelivery agent (e.g., selecting an agent to pick/pack, selecting adelivery agent, auctioning service providers, information)

Although some embodiments have been described with respect to deliveryfrom one merchant, it should be recognized that a mobile device may beused to enter an order for goods from multiple merchants. Variousexamples of facilitating delivery from multiple merchants are givenherein.

Suggestion Examples

Some embodiments may include making a suggestion based on locations(e.g., presenting information through a user interface). Such asuggestion may be made in response to an order from a first merchantbeing placed and/or received. Such a suggestion may include a suggestionrelated to a second merchant. Such a suggestion related to a secondmerchant that is proximate to a location and/or route related to thefirst merchant and/or the customer (e.g., close to the first merchant,close to a route between the first merchant and the customer, close tothe customer). Some embodiments may include determining that a secondmerchant is close to a location and/or route (e.g., within a thresholdexpected time frame, within a distance threshold). In some embodiments,making a suggestion may be performed in response to such adetermination.

Some embodiments may include suggesting a merchant and/or goods to acustomer. Such a suggestion may be made by a delivery/referral system,by a delivery agent, by a merchant, and so on. Such a suggestion may bemade through an interface (e.g., a webpage) that may be used to place anorder. In some embodiments, such a suggestion may include a suggestionbased on a location (e.g., a location of a merchant, a location of adestination, a location of a service providing agent, a route betweenone location and another location). For example, some embodiments mayinclude making a suggestion of a merchant and/or good sold by a merchantthat is near the merchant for which an order is placed, a merchant thatis along a route between the merchant for which an order is placed and acustomer, a merchant within a threshold distance from a route between amerchant and a destination, a merchant that is along a route and/orwithin a threshold distance from a route between a service providingagent and a merchant (e.g., a picker, a deliver agent, a recipientagent, and so on), and so on. In some embodiments, such a suggestion maybe based on ordered items and/or user profiles (e.g., a knowledge that alast time an order was placed a second order was also placed, aknowledge that a prior order may have been used such as an order oftissue paper, a knowledge that a favored merchant is near a route, andso on).

Some embodiments may include suggesting to a service provider. Suchsuggestion may include a suggestion based on a location ((e.g., alocation of a merchant that the agent is performing a service withrespect to, a location of a destination that the agent is performing aservice with respect to, a location of a service providing agent, aroute between one location and another location). For example, if adelivery agent is making a delivery from a first location to secondlocation, a suggestion may be made that the merchant also make adelivery from a third location that is along the route from the firstlocation to the second location to a fourth location (e.g., one that maybe near the second location). Such a suggestion may include identifyingan auction that is taking place with respect to a particular service.Some embodiments may include determining one or more locations and/ordistances of merchant(s), customer(s), route(s), delivery agent(s), andso on such as by using one or more mapping techniques and/or receivedlocation information as discussed herein. Some embodiments may includedetermining that a suggestion should be made based on such one or morelocations and/or distances (e.g., based on a distance being below athreshold, based on an expected additional time being below a threshold,and so on).

Some embodiments may include one or more computer systems that mayprocess location information and/or perform one or more actions based onlocation information. For example, a delivery/referral service mayreceive information about locations of one or more agents, sourceinformation for one or more orders, destination information for one ormore orders, routes for one or more deliveries and/or other services,and so on. In some embodiments, such a system may determine a routebased on a beginning and ending location (e.g., using a mappingtechnique, using an outside source such as Google maps, and so on). Insome embodiments, locations may be determined based on GPS or otherlocation information in a database (e.g., a location of a merchant maybe determined based on location information for the merchant stored inthe database). In some embodiments, locations may be determined based onlocation information received about an agent and/or destination (e.g., aGPS location of a cab, an address for a delivery). In some embodimentslocations may be compared to one another and/or to routes to determine adistance and/or expected time. In some embodiments, a suggestion,assignment, etc. may be facilitated (e.g., information may betransmitted) based on such a comparison (e.g., if the comparison is lessthan a threshold such as 1 mile). In some embodiments, records regardingdistances and/or times may be recorded and used in the future todetermine expected times (e.g., through a lookup table of past timesbetween locations).

In some embodiments, a referral/delivery service may provide a paymentand/or determine a payment to a merchant, delivery agent, and/or otherentity that makes a suggestion in response to a customer and/or serviceagent accepting the suggestion. In some embodiments, a delivery agentmay accept a suggested route at a discounted price because the routedoes not add much time and/or expense to a delivery. Similar acceptancemay be made for any service provider (e.g., a picker that is already ata store for another order). In some embodiments in which cost of serviceproviding is passed on to a customer or merchant, an allocation of thecost of the two routes (e.g., or more routes as desired) may be madebetween the two routes based on the cost of both routes. For example,the cost may be reduced for the first route and increased for the secondroute such that the second route is not blessed with a lower fee becauseit was accepted second. In some embodiments, the cost may not be passedalong to the costumer or merchant, so that the referral/delivery servicemay take the lowering in price as part of a payment.

Purchase Arbitrage Examples

Some embodiments may include adjusting a source of goods based on pricesof the goods at other sources. FIG. 14 illustrates an example methodthat may be performed in some embodiments. In some embodiments, acustomer may choose one or more goods for delivery from a particularmerchant. As indicated at block 1401, some embodiments may includereceiving information about one or more goods for an order for a firstmerchant. In some embodiments, some or all of such goods may be a goodoffered for sale from a plurality of merchants. In some embodiments, adelivery/referral system may be aware of the location of each merchantand/or the prices for which the goods are offered by each merchant. Asindicated at block 1403, some embodiments may include determining that asecond merchant offers one or more goods for an order. Such determiningmay be performed in response to receiving information about an order. Insome embodiments, in response to receiving an order for goods from afirst merchant and/or determining that one or more goods of the ordermay be offered by a second merchant, a delivery/referral service maydetermine that fulfilling at least a part of the order form the secondmerchant would be advantageous as indicated at block 1405. Such adetermination may be made based on a price of the goods offered by thefirst and second merchant, a location of the first and/or secondmerchant, a cost of providing delivery services for each of the firstand second merchant and/or any desired information. As indicated atblock 1407, some embodiments may include facilitating fulfilling atleast a part of the order from the second merchant in response to such adetermination (e.g., facilitating delivery).

For example, in some embodiments, if a good is offered for less money ata second merchant, then the good may be provided from the secondmerchant rather than the first merchant. In some embodiments, if asecond merchant is closer to a destination and/or service provider(e.g., location of and/or route of) than the first merchant, the goodmay be provided from the second merchant rather than the first merchant.In some embodiments, if it is cheaper to provide a delivery from thesecond merchant than the first merchant, the good may be provided formthe second merchant rather than the first merchant (e.g., if an auctionfor both deliveries result in delivery form the second merchant beingcheaper, then the second merchant may be chosen and the first auctionmay be cancelled/invalidated). In some embodiments, such comparisons mayrequire a threshold different (e.g., 1 dollar, 1 mile, 10%). Someembodiments may include allowing an auction between merchants to fulfillthe order.

In some embodiments, a referral/delivery service may provide thecustomer with any price discrepancy and/or may keep the pricediscrepancy as a profit. In some embodiments, the service may become apoint of returns, complaints, and/or exchanges of the goods. This mayplace the service as what is viewed as the source of the goods such thatthe user is not aware of the change from one merchant to anothermerchant.

Wide Syndication Examples

It should be recognized that while various embodiments may be describedin terms of a delivery agent, that various examples, methods, systems,embodiments, and so on may apply to any desired service provider may beused in various embodiments. For example pickers, packers, paymentprocessors, merchants themselves, receivers, coordinators,intermediaries, and so on may be used in some embodiments. For example,some embodiments may include bids, auctions, filtering, selections,transmitting, receiving, facilitating, determining, selecting, and so onwith respect to such service providers in similar and/or differentmanners than described with respect to delivery agents. For example, apacker at a grocery store and/or a picker at a grocery store may beselected based on an auction process, a merchant itself may be chosenbased on such a process for a fungible and/or other good that may beavailable from more than one merchant, and so on.

A referral and/or delivery service may allocate a payment among anyservices providers that provide a service to fulfill an order. Forexample, a referral/delivery service may accept a flat fee based on anorder amount (e.g., 10% of a fee charged by a merchant). A percentage ofsuch a flat fee may be allocated and/or provided to each serviceprovider that aids in fulfilling an order. The amount and/or percentagemay be determined based on one or more auctions and/or set fees. In someembodiments, a referral/delivery service may charge a service fee to amerchant and/or customer to provide each service. Such service fee maybe on top of and/or part of a fee for the delivery/referral service. Itshould be recognized that any method for distributing and/or allocatingfees may be used.

Bonding Examples

Some embodiments may include bonding one or more service providers. Someexamples of methods and/or systems that may be used for bonding aredescribed in U.S. patent publication 2009/0083135 entitled Products andProcesses for Revenue Sharing and Delivery, which is hereby incorporatedherein by reference. In some embodiments, a referral/delivery system maybond and/or request bonding information from a service providing agentbefore the service providing agent is tasked with performing a service(e.g., on demand in response to a request to perform the service, aspart of a registration process for performing any services, and so on).In some embodiments, bonding may include determining that an amount ofmoney is available to forfeit by or on behalf of the agent if theservice is not performed. Such an amount may include an amount that isbased on a value of a good or service being provided (e.g., a percentagevalue, an entire value, and so on). In some embodiments, a bonding mayinclude a credential that may be indicative of trustworthiness.

In various embodiments, any desired method of bonding a service providermay be used. For example, in some embodiments, a rating of prior usersmay act as a bonding (e.g., from the service and/or another service suchas Yelp), a driving record may act as a bonding, a background check mayact as a bonding, a university ID may act as a bonding, a recommendationfrom a member of a social network may act as a bonding (e.g., of acustomer, and/or merchant), and so on. In some embodiments bonding maybe performed using a bonding agent. Similar to other service providersdiscussed herein, such a bonding agent may be chosen and/or bond may befacilitate through such a bonding agent using any desired process orsystem such as those discussed herein.

In some embodiments, indications of such bonding devices may be receivedby a delivery/referral service and used to determine that an agent issufficiently bonded for a task. For example, a university ID image maybe transmitted from an agent to a service, a driving record may betransmitted from a delivery agent to a service, a third party maytransmit desired information (e.g., a state agency may transmit adriving record, a bank may transmit an indication of money available inan account, etc.), and so on. Such information may be processed todetermine that an agent has a sufficient level of bonding. In responseto such a determination, an agent may be included in an auction (e.g.,may be allowed to bid in an auction, may be authorized to bid in anauction, may be notified of an auction, may not be prevented frombidding in an auction), may be chosen for performance of a service, maybe transmitted information about a service to be provided, and so on. Acustomer and/or merchant may indicate a level of bonding desired througha user interface (e.g., a customer may indicate that a universitystudent should be used, that an agent with a rating above 3.5 starsshould be used, and so on).

For example, in some embodiments, a picker may be bonding based on arating of people that have used the picker for the merchant. A deliveryagent may be bonded based on a driving record received from a stateagency. A receiver (e.g., a person that may receive and/or unpacksdelivered goods) may be bonded based on having a university ID. Suchexamples of bonding are given as non-limiting and may be used in anycombination for any service provider as desired.

Interfacing Examples

Some embodiments may include providing an interface and/or API to one ormore sources for ordering goods. Such source may include, for example,web pages, brick and mortar stores, POS terminals, mobile devices, andso on. Such an interface may be used to communicate with areferral/delivery service (e.g., to submit requests for delivery). Forexample, in some embodiments, a website that offers goods for sale maycommunicate with a referral/delivery service to provide deliveryservices for the goods, a brick and mortar store may include a POSterminal or other device that may interface with a referral/deliveryservice to provide delivery service for the store, and so on.

In some embodiments, a website that allows for ordering of goods and/orservices may interface with a delivery/referral service. For example,some such websites may include Stubhub, Craigslist, Ebay, any merchant'swebsite, Grubhub, and so on. In order to provide delivery or otherservices related to an order, such a website may transmit information toa delivery/referral service. In some embodiments, using such adelivery/referral service for delivery may be one option out of aplurality of options (e.g., a user may be able to select Fed Ex or adelivery service). For example, an interface of the website may allow auser to operate a control to select a delivery service, and/or enter anydesired delivery information.

Commination between such a website and/or other source may beunidirectional and/or bi directions. For example, a delivery service maycommunicate a result to a website and/or customer of the website, mayconfirm information, and so on. In some embodiments, allocations and/ordistributions of payments may be performed by the website, by thedelivery service, by a delivery agent, and so on.

Some embodiments may allow a user to indicate a maximum cost of adelivery service. For example, if a user of a website selects to use theservice and an auction is performed to determine a cost of the service,some embodiments may pass the cost of the auction to the customer. Thecustomer may therefore not know the cost of the delivery until after theauction. The user may set a maximum cost such that a delivery may not beperformed using the delivery service if the cost exceeds the maximum. Insome embodiments such a maximum amount may be used in a reverse auctionas a starting price. Another delivery method may be chosen instead(e.g., Fed Ex). In some embodiments, a flat rate may be charged for thedelivery service and an auction may not be used, an auction may be used,but the delivery service may keep any difference between the auctionsprice and the flat rate, and/or any desired method of charging acustomer for delivery may be used.

Service within Service Examples

In some embodiments, a first referral/delivery service may allow otherreferral/delivery services to interact with the first referral/deliveryservice. For example, in some embodiments, another delivery/referralservice may act as a pass through to the first delivery/referral service(e.g., may collect orders and pass them to the first delivery/referralservice). In some embodiments, the other delivery/referral service mayoffload extra work the first delivery/referral service. In someembodiments, a first delivery/referral service may pay the otherdelivery/referral service for a referral of an order.

In some embodiments, a church, a community group, and so on mayestablish another referral/delivery service. For example, such otherreferral/delivery service may operate on a website that lists goodsand/or allows for submission of orders. Orders submitted through thewebsite may be communicated to the referral/delivery service from theother delivery/referral service. The other delivery/referral service mayreceive a payment and/or be allocated a payment for the referral and thereferral/delivery service may make the delivery. Accordingly, the otherreferral/delivery service may make a profit by referring orders to thereferral/delivery service.

Syndicate Enabling Technology Examples

Some embodiments may include providing a payment for a service of anenabling action. For example, in some embodiments, assigning a merchantup to a service may include an enabling service, maintaining a menu mayinclude an enabling service, performing a binding may include anenabling service, maintaining a server may include an enabling service,updating inventories may be considered an enabling service (e.g., sothat a delivery service may know where goods are in stock at variousmerchants to select a merchant to fulfill an order), and so on. Serviceproviders for such enabling services may be syndicated (e.g., auctions,assigned, and so on) to third parties. Such enabling service providersmay be provided with a payment (e.g., a portion of a fee earned becauseof the provided enabling service, a portion of a fee received for eachmerchant for which a menu is maintained, and so on). Such percentagesmay be auctioned to various bidders to select one that should providethe service in some embodiments.

Having thus described several aspects of at least one embodiment of thisinvention, it is to be appreciated various alterations, modifications,and improvements will readily occur to those skilled in the art. Suchalterations, modifications, and improvements are intended to be part ofthis disclosure, and are intended to be within the scope of theinvention. Accordingly, the foregoing description and drawings are byway of example only.

XII. Embodiments

The following should be understood as embodiments, not as claims.

A. An apparatus comprising a non-transitory computer readable mediumhaving stored thereon a plurality of instructions that when executed bya computing device, causes the computing device to perform a methodcomprising: receiving an order for a restaurant from a user of adelivery service, in which the order includes an order to deliver a setof food items from the restaurant to the user; transmitting anindication of the order to the restaurant; determining that a pluralityof delivery agents should be used to perform delivery of the set of fooditems from the restaurant to the user; selecting a first delivery agentto transfer the set of food items from the restaurant to a firstlocation; selecting a second delivery agent to transfer the set of fooditems the first location to the user; and facilitating delivery of thefood items from the restaurant to the user using the first and seconddelivery agents.

A.1. The apparatus of claim A, in which facilitating delivery includesnotifying the first and second delivery agents of the first location anda time to meet at the first location to transfer the set of food itemsfrom the first delivery agent to the second delivery agent. A.2. Theapparatus of claim A, in which facilitating delivery includes arrangingan intermediary at the first location to receive the set of food itemsfrom the first delivery agent, hold the set of food items for an amountof time, and provide the set of food items to the second delivery agent.A.2.1. The apparatus of claim A.2, in which the order includes an orderfor a food item from a second restaurant, in which the intermediaryincludes the second restaurant, and in which arranging includesarranging for the intermediary to add the food item to the set of fooditems provided to the second delivery agent. A.3. The apparatus of claimA, in which determining that the plurality of delivery agents should beused includes initiating an auction for delivery of the set of fooditems and comparing costs submitted to the auction for completedeliveries to prices submitted to the auction for partial deliveries.A.3.1. The apparatus of claim A.3, in which selecting the first andsecond delivery agents includes selecting based on a most affordablecombination of prices submitted to the auction.

A.4. The apparatus of claim A, in which the plurality of delivery agentsincludes cab drivers. A.5. The apparatus of claim A, in which selectingthe first and second delivery agents includes selecting based on acomparison of a route of travel of the first and second delivery agentsand the locations of the user, the first location, and the restaurant.A.5.1. The apparatus of claim A.5, in which selecting the first deliveryagent includes selecting based on a route of expected travel passingproximate to each of the restaurant and the first location. A.5.1.1. Theapparatus of claim A.5.1, in which the method further comprisesreceiving an indication of GPS coordinates of the first delivery agentand an indication of a destination of the first delivery agent, anddetermining the route of expected travel based on the GPS coordinatesand the indication of the destination. A.5.2. The apparatus of claimA.5, in which selecting the second delivery agent includes selectingbased on a route of expected travel passing proximate to each of thefirst location and the user. A.5.2.1. The apparatus of claim A.5.2, inwhich the method further comprises receiving an indication of GPScoordinates of the second delivery agent and an indication of adestination of the second delivery agent, and determining the route ofexpected travel based on the GPS coordinates and the indication of thedestination.

B. An apparatus comprising: a point of sale terminal configured to:receive information about one or more items purchased at a merchant by acustomer, receive payment information for the purchase of the one ormore items, receive information about a destination for a delivery ofthe one or more items, and transmit information about the delivery to acomputing device of a delivery service to arrange for the one or moreitems to be delivered from the merchant to the customer; and thecomputing device of a delivery service configured to: receive theinformation about the delivery from the point of sale terminal, initiatean auction to determine which of a plurality of delivery agents shoulddeliver the items from the merchant to the customer, selecting adelivery agent based on the auction, and facilitating delivery of theitems from the merchant to the customer using the selected deliveryagent.

B.1. The apparatus of claim B, in which facilitating the deliveryincludes transmitting information to the selected delivery agentidentifying the order and transmitting information to the merchantidentifying the selected delivery agent. B.2. The apparatus of claim B,in which the payment information includes payment information for thedelivery. B.3. The apparatus of claim B, in which the pint of saleterminal includes a cash register. B.4. The apparatus of claim B, inwhich the auction includes a reverse auction. B.5. The apparatus ofclaim B, in which the information about the delivery includes a time forthe delivery, and in which facilitating the delivery includesidentifying the time to the selected delivery agent. B.6. The apparatusof claim B, in which the information about the delivery includes adestination for the delivery, and in which facilitating the deliveryincludes identifying the destination to the selected delivery agent.

C. An apparatus comprising a non-transitory computer readable mediumhaving stored thereon a plurality of instructions that when executed bya computing device, causes the computing device to perform a methodcomprising: receiving a plurality of respective indications of itemscaptured by a camera of a cellular telephone; receiving an indication ofa payment for the items from the cellular telephone; receiving anindication of a destination for a delivery of the items from thecellular telephone; initiating an auction to determine which of aplurality of delivery agents should deliver the items to thedestination; selecting a delivery agent based on the auction; andfacilitating delivery of the items to the destination using the selecteddelivery agent.

C.1. The apparatus of claim C, in which the indications of the itemsincludes barcodes. C.2. The apparatus of claim C, in which theindications of the items include pictures. C.3. The apparatus of claimC, in which the method includes determining a source of the items basedon a database of merchants proximate to the destination that sell theitems. C.3.1. The apparatus of claim C.3, in which determining thesource includes determining the source based on the lowest prices forwhich the goods are offered. C.4. The apparatus of claim C, in which themethod includes receiving respective indications of respective locationscorresponding to the captures of the indications of the items, anddetermining a merchant to supply the items based on the locations.C.4.1. The apparatus of claim C.4, in which determining the merchantincludes comparing the locations with a database of merchant locations.C.4.2. The apparatus of claim C.4, in which the locations include GPScoordinates. C.4.3. The apparatus of claim C.4, in which the methodincludes: initiating an auction to determine which of a plurality ofpickers should pick the items from the shelves of the merchant selectingthe picker based on the auction, and facilitating picking of the itemsfrom the shelves of the merchant using the selected picker. C.5. Theapparatus of claim C, in which the method includes receiving anindication of a merchant to supply the items from the cellulartelephone. C.5.1. The apparatus of claim C, in which the methodincludes: initiating an auction to determine which of a plurality ofpickers should pick the items from the shelves of the merchant selectingthe picker based on the auction, and facilitating picking of the itemsfrom the shelves of the merchant using the selected picker.

What is claimed is:
 1. An apparatus comprising a non-transitory computerreadable medium having stored thereon a plurality of instructions thatwhen executed by a computing device, causes the computing device toperform a method comprising: receiving an order for a restaurant from auser of a delivery service, in which the order includes an order todeliver a set of food items from the restaurant to the user;transmitting an indication of the order to the restaurant; determiningthat a plurality of delivery agents should be used to perform deliveryof the set of food items from the restaurant to the user; selecting afirst delivery agent to transfer the set of food items from therestaurant to a first location; selecting a second delivery agent totransfer the set of food items the first location to the user; andfacilitating delivery of the food items from the restaurant to the userusing the first and second delivery agents.
 2. The apparatus of claim 1,in which facilitating delivery includes notifying the first and seconddelivery agents of the first location and a time to meet at the firstlocation to transfer the set of food items from the first delivery agentto the second delivery agent.
 3. The apparatus of claim 1, in whichfacilitating delivery includes arranging an intermediary at the firstlocation to receive the set of food items from the first delivery agent,hold the set of food items for an amount of time, and provide the set offood items to the second delivery agent.
 4. The apparatus of claim 3, inwhich the order includes an order for a food item from a secondrestaurant, in which the intermediary includes the second restaurant,and in which arranging includes arranging for the intermediary to addthe food item to the set of food items provided to the second deliveryagent.
 5. The apparatus of claim 1, in which determining that theplurality of delivery agents should be used includes initiating anauction for delivery of the set of food items and comparing costssubmitted to the auction for complete deliveries to prices submitted tothe auction for partial deliveries.
 6. The apparatus of claim 5, inwhich selecting the first and second delivery agents includes selectingbased on a most affordable combination of prices submitted to theauction.
 7. The apparatus of claim 1, in which the plurality of deliveryagents includes cab drivers.
 8. The apparatus of claim 1, in whichselecting the first and second delivery agents includes selecting basedon a comparison of a route of travel of the first and second deliveryagents and the locations of the user, the first location, and therestaurant.
 9. The apparatus of claim 8, in which selecting the firstdelivery agent includes selecting based on a route of expected travelpassing proximate to each of the restaurant and the first location. 10.The apparatus of claim 9, in which the method further comprisesreceiving an indication of GPS coordinates of the first delivery agentand an indication of a destination of the first delivery agent, anddetermining the route of expected travel based on the GPS coordinatesand the indication of the destination.
 11. The apparatus of claim 8, inwhich selecting the second delivery agent includes selecting based on aroute of expected travel passing proximate to each of the first locationand the user.
 12. The apparatus of claim 11, in which the method furthercomprises receiving an indication of GPS coordinates of the seconddelivery agent and an indication of a destination of the second deliveryagent, and determining the route of expected travel based on the GPScoordinates and the indication of the destination.
 13. An apparatuscomprising: a point of sale terminal configured to: receive informationabout one or more items purchased at a merchant by a customer, receivepayment information for the purchase of the one or more items, receiveinformation about a destination for a delivery of the one or more items,and transmit information about the delivery to a computing device of adelivery service to arrange for the one or more items to be deliveredfrom the merchant to the customer; and the computing device of adelivery service configured to: receive the information about thedelivery from the point of sale terminal, initiate an auction todetermine which of a plurality of delivery agents should deliver theitems from the merchant to the customer, select a delivery agent basedon the auction, and facilitate delivery of the items from the merchantto the customer using the selected delivery agent.
 14. The apparatus ofclaim 13, in which facilitating the delivery includes transmittinginformation to the selected delivery agent identifying the order andtransmitting information to the merchant identifying the selecteddelivery agent.
 15. The apparatus of claim 13, in which the paymentinformation includes payment information for the delivery.
 16. Theapparatus of claim 13, in which the pint of sale terminal includes acash register.
 17. The apparatus of claim 13, in which the auctionincludes a reverse auction.
 18. The apparatus of claim 13, in which theinformation about the delivery includes a time for the delivery, and inwhich facilitating the delivery includes identifying the time to theselected delivery agent.
 19. The apparatus of claim 13, in which theinformation about the delivery includes a destination for the delivery,and in which facilitating the delivery includes identifying thedestination to the selected delivery agent.
 20. An apparatus comprisinga non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon aplurality of instructions that when executed by a computing device,causes the computing device to perform a method comprising: receiving aplurality of respective indications of items captured by a camera of acellular telephone; receiving an indication of a payment for the itemsfrom the cellular telephone; receiving an indication of a destinationfor a delivery of the items from the cellular telephone; initiating anauction to determine which of a plurality of delivery agents shoulddeliver the items to the destination; selecting a delivery agent basedon the auction; and facilitating delivery of the items to thedestination using the selected delivery agent.